Britain and the US have raised alarms that Russia has shared nuclear secrets with Iran in exchange for Tehran supplying Moscow with ballistic missiles to bombard Ukraine.
“The Guardian” reports that, “during their summit in Washington DC on Friday, Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden acknowledged that both countries are strengthening military cooperation at a time when Iran is in the process of enriching enough uranium to achieve its long-standing goal of building a nuclear bomb.”
British sources have expressed concerns about Iran’s trade in nuclear technology, which is part of a deepening alliance between Tehran and Moscow.
Last Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a similar warning during a visit to London for a summit with his British counterpart, David Lammy. Although the focus at the time was on the US announcement that Iran was supplying Moscow with missiles, Blinken noted that Russia was sharing technology sought by Iran.
“On its part, Russia is sharing the technology that Iran seeks. This is a two-way street, including nuclear issues as well as some space information,” said Blinken.
Britain, France, and Germany collectively warned last week that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium has continued to grow significantly, without credible civilian justification, and that it had accumulated four significant quantities, each of which could be used to make a nuclear bomb.
However, it is unclear how much technical knowledge Tehran currently has about building a nuclear weapon or how quickly it could achieve this. Working with experienced Russian specialists or using Russian knowledge would speed up the production process, although Iran denies it is attempting to build a nuclear bomb.
Iran had reached an agreement in 2015 to halt the production of nuclear weapons in exchange for the easing of sanctions by the US and other Western countries, only for the agreement to be abandoned in 2018 by then-US President and current Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Iran responded by exceeding the agreed limits on the amount of enriched uranium it could hold.
Western concern that Iran is close to being able to produce a nuclear weapon has circulated for months, contributing to heightened tensions in the Middle East, already high due to Israel’s ongoing assault on Hamas and Gaza.
Iran and its representative in Lebanon, Hezbollah, are supporters of Hamas, and Tehran’s nuclear development is seen as a direct threat by Jerusalem.
Immediately after Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Iran began supplying Moscow with Shahed delta-wing drones and helped Russia build a factory to produce more for bombing targets across Ukraine.
In April of this year, Iran launched a rocket and drone attack in the style of Russia aimed at Israel, though it was essentially thwarted and stopped with the help of the US and Britain.
Although not historically allies, Russia and Iran have become increasingly united in their opposition to the West, part of a broader axis of turmoil that also includes China and North Korea to varying degrees, reflecting a return to a state competition era reminiscent of the Cold War.
