The West warns that in exchange for supplying ballistic missiles, the Russians could help develop Iran’s nuclear program.
Following last week’s reports of Iranian ballistic missile supplies to Russia, Western countries are increasingly concerned about Moscow’s growing cooperation with Tehran. Although it has been developing since the start of the war in Ukraine, when the ayatollahs began supplying drones to the Russian military, the supply of Fath-360 missiles to Russia was perceived as crossing a red line.
The United States and Britain believe that in exchange for access to ballistic missiles, Russia will share secret information and technology with Iran that could help it develop its nuclear program. During a recent visit to London, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken himself suggested this. “It works both ways. Russia gets Fath-360 missiles and in return shares the technology that Iran seeks. This concerns both nuclear and space issues,” he argued.
Britain, France and Germany warned last week that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium was growing, even though the Iranians “have failed to provide any credible civilian justification for their nuclear program.” Tehran officially denies that its goal is to produce nuclear weapons. In April, it suggested that the Islamic Republic could revise its nuclear doctrine if Israel attacked its nuclear facilities. However, it is unclear how much technical expertise the country’s authorities currently have to build a nuclear weapon, or how quickly they could do so.
