Iran, US and EU diplomats warn of nuclear weapons: What's happening

Iranian nuclear fears are growing among diplomats in the US and Europe. The concern is that Tehran's nuclear program and the instability caused by the conflict in Gaza are strengthening Iranian factions that support the development of nuclear weapons. After last weekend's parliamentary elections. Despite Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi reiterating the project's peaceful aims in recent days. And yet, the British newspaper writes, last week, raised the alarm about the US and European partners Non-cooperation threatens Iran's nuclear program.

The warning came at a quarterly meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors, and the agency's director, Raffaele Grossi, admitted that there was “no continuity of knowledge about the production and availability of centrifuges, rotors, heavy water and uranium enrichment”. .

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's representative to international organizations in Vienna, warned of a “dangerous” situation. And it's “perils spinning out of control”. The Russian embassy is to blame for the United States withdrawing from the international agreement on Iran's nuclear program in 2015. The JCPOA was signed as a ten-year deal and Donald Trump decided to withdraw the US.

The urgency of the document increases, the Guardian observes, because Iran enriches uranium to close to 90%But in recent months representatives of the Islamic Republic have questioned Tehran's commitment to a nuclear program with exclusively peaceful aims.

According to Khazra Arabi of United Against a Nuclear Iran, “the Biden administration's refusal to impose direct consequences on Iran despite aggressive actions since October 7,” including an attack in Syria that killed three U.S. soldiers, “encouraged and created an Iranian regime under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards.” They believe they can increase without any consequences.” And, The Guardian writes, despite long-standing fears over Tehran's responses, deemed unreliable by the IAEA, nuclear material found at three sites and the extent to which inspectors in the Islamic Republic can work in the United States are losing patience in the face of what they see as Iranian obstructionism.

Laura Holgate, the US ambassador to the IAEA, made it clear at last week's meeting: “After five years of Iran's limited cooperation, five years of Iran's failure to comply with its commitments, five years of unanswered questions regarding the presence of nuclear material at undeclared sites in Iran, Tehran's current behavior cannot be allowed to continue. The E3 Group (United Kingdom, He asked Grassi for a concrete report to the next meeting in June, when new sanctions must be evaluated by the United Nations (France and Germany).

The E3 itself has called on the Islamic Republic to “take serious and significant steps to demonstrate a genuine desire to develop nuclear weapons” because “Iran's recent public statements about its technological capabilities to develop nuclear weapons point in the opposite direction”. Meanwhile, Tehran emphasizes its willingness to negotiate a new version of the nuclear deal and, writes the Guardian, talks continue with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri and European interlocutors.