American and British leaders are growing concerned that Russia may be sharing nuclear secrets with Iran to bolster its weapons program in exchange for ballistic missiles to bomb Ukraine, according to an unsettling new report.
President Biden and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer shared their worries privately during a meeting in Washington on Friday — as the two leaders sought to tighten their military cooperation over the alleged deal between the Kremlin and Tehran, sources told The Guardian.
While the exact details of the possible exchange remain unclear, intelligence sources believe Russia is providing specialists to help streamline Iran’s nuclear program as it grows its stockpile of enriched uranium.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised the alarm over the alleged deal last week in a trip to London following reports that Iran had been supplying Moscow with ballistic missiles.
US and UK officials quickly came to the conclusion that Russia must be making the exchange worthwhile for Iran.
“For its part, Russia is sharing technology that Iran seeks, this is a two-way street, including on nuclear issues as well as some space information,” Blinken told reporters last Tuesday.
Blinken’s allegations came at a time when Britain, France and Germany filed a joint warning that Tehran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium had “continued to grow significantly, without any credible civilian justification.”
The G7 also united in condemning the arms deal between Iran and Russia on Saturday, with the foreign ministers of all seven nations calling on the exchange to end.
“Iran must immediately cease all support to Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable war against Ukraine and halt such transfers of ballistic missiles, UAVs and related technology, which constitute a direct threat to the Ukrainian people as well as European and international security more broadly,” the ministers said in a statement.
Iran has repeatedly claimed that it does not seek to create a nuclear bomb with its enriched uranium, despite skepticism from much of the world.
While Iran’s nuclear capabilities remain a tightly kept secret, their development could see a significant boost from Russia, which holds the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world.
Back in May, the International Atomic Energy Agency watchdog group warned that Tehran has about 313.2 pounds of uranium that is enriched up to 60%.
Once a nation stockpiles roughly 92.5 pounds of uranium that’s enriched up to 60%, making a nuclear weapon becomes theoretically possible, according to the agency.
Iran had struck a deal in 2015 to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief from the US and Western allies, but former President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018.
Fears of a nuclear-powered Iran have also been propagated by the war in Gaza, with Iran vowing to launch a direct attack against Israel over the assassination of Hamas’ top official in Tehran.
