British, French spy chiefs express concern over Iran nuclear program: ‘Threatens us all’
France’s intelligence chief says Tehran’s nuclear proliferation is a ‘critical threat’ in coming months, as UK, France, Germany and Iran agree to continue dialogue ‘in near future’
British and French intelligence chiefs on Friday expressed concern over Iran’s nuclear program, as European officials met with senior diplomats from Tehran for talks on the matter.
In a speech in Paris, the United Kingdom’s foreign intelligence chief said Iran’s nuclear ambitions pose a major global security threat, even after setbacks dealt to its terror group allies Hamas and Hezbollah by Israel.
“Iran’s allied militias across the Middle East have suffered serious blows,” said Secret Intelligence Service chief Richard Moore. “But the regime’s nuclear ambitions continue to threaten all of us.”
Meanwhile, the head of France’s intelligence service said the risk of Iranian nuclear proliferation is a serious threat in the coming months and Britain and France are working out strategies to prepare for such an event.
“Our services are working side by side to face what is undoubtedly one of the threats, if not to say the most critical threat, in the coming months – the possible atomic proliferation in Iran,” Nicolas Lerner said at the British embassy in Geneva.
“The intelligence will be crucial to enable our authorities to make the right decisions and define the right strategies,” he said in rare public comments.
Meanwhile, Iran, Britain, France and Germany have agreed to continue diplomatic dialogue “in the near future,” the German foreign ministry and the high-level diplomats representing France and Britain and Iran said separately on X after Friday talks on Tehran’s nuclear program.
“We are firmly committed to pursue the interests of our people, and our preference is the path of dialogue and engagement,” Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, said on X.
European and Iranian diplomats met to discuss whether they could engage in serious talks in the coming weeks to defuse tensions in the region, including over Tehran’s nuclear program, before Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The meetings in the Swiss city of Geneva — where world powers and Iran achieved a first breakthrough in nuclear talks more than a decade ago before reaching a deal in 2015 — came as the United Nations’ nuclear agency said Tehran had informed it of plans to install some 6,000 new centrifuges to enrich uranium.
The high-level meetings were the first since the United States presidential election earlier this month and aim to see whether any momentum can be built ahead of Trump’s inauguration on January 20. The US president-elect, who pulled Washington out of the 2015 deal during his first term, has reportedly vowed to renew his “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday that his country, which says it is nominally opposed to nuclear weapons, could change course if sanctions are reintroduced. Hours later in a television interview, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would do “everything” to stop Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Tehran is openly committed to Israel’s destruction and spearheads a network of regional proxies that have waged war on Israel for over a year, triggered by the Hamas terror group’s deadly onslaught on October 7, 2023.
Ahead of the meetings with the E3 countries, Iran said Thursday that it had injected uranium gas into newly activated centrifuges — a necessary step toward a nuclear bomb.
The move apparently came in response to the condemnation of Iran at the United Nations’ atomic energy watchdog last week. The 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency voted on November 21 to adopt the resolution, proposed by the US and E3 countries, that tasked the body with preparing a “comprehensive” report on Iran’s nuclear activities by the spring of 2025 amid limited, last-ditch Iranian pledges to curb uranium enrichment.
According to an IAEA report seen by AFP, “Iran informed the Agency that it intended to feed” around 6,000 centrifuges at its sites in Fordo and Natanz to enrich uranium to up to five percent — higher than the 3.67% limit Tehran had agreed to in 2015.
Iran insists on its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, but according to the IAEA, it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state enriching uranium to 60%. Uranium enriched at 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Since 2018, Iran has accelerated its nuclear program while limiting the IAEA’s ability to monitor it.
