United Nations: Britain, France and Germany have expressed serious concerns over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, accusing Iran of enriching uranium to “unprecedented levels” without any “credible civilian purpose”.
The three countries, known as the E3, said in a statement ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on Tehran’s nuclear program that Iran “must withdraw its nuclear tensions.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said Iran had increased its production of enriched uranium, making it the only non-nuclear-weapon state with up to 60 percent enriched uranium.
This level is on the way to 90% of the level required for an atomic bomb.
“Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium has also reached unprecedented levels, again without any credible civilian justification. This gives Iran the ability to produce enough fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons,” the trio said in the statement. can develop rapidly,” the trio said in a statement.
“Iran has accelerated its installation of advanced centrifuges, another damaging step in Iran’s efforts to undermine the nuclear deal it claims to support.”
Last week, Berlin, London and Paris raised the possibility of using a mechanism in the landmark 2015 deal on Iran’s nuclear program that allowed signatories to reimpose sanctions that had been eased.
The deal with Tehran bargained for relief from sanctions on its nuclear program.
It was signed by Iran on one side and France, Germany, Great Britain, China, Russia and the United States on the other.
But in 2018, then US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal and reimposed US sanctions against Iran.
Iran retaliated by increasing its production of enriched uranium by 60%.
A Western diplomat described Iran as “significantly weakened” by the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, saying it could force Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons to strengthen its grip.
“(But) if Iran is weakened, they may be more willing to negotiate,” he said.
Iran says it has the right to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and has consistently denied any ambitions to develop a weapons capability.