US and UK reportedly alarmed over secret Iran-Russia nuclear cooperation

Russian expertise could enable Iran to rapidly weaponize its nuclear stockpile

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U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed the possibility of Russia sharing nuclear secrets with Iran in exchange for the latter transferring ballistic missiles for the war effort in Ukraine.

According to the UK news site The Guardian, the two leaders discussed the prospect of such an agreement during their meeting at the White House on Friday. If confirmed, this would provide further evidence of the non-civilian nature of Iran's nuclear program.

Last week, Russia and Iran declassified material that revealed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had accepted a shipment of Fath-360 ballistic missiles from Iran. This came shortly after the United States, Great Britain, Germany and France condemned the Iranian regime for failing to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The four nations referenced the “continued expansion of Iran’s nuclear activities, in increasing violation” of the agreements under the nuclear deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The statement released by the Western nations accused Iran of “blatantly violating all JCPOA limits on both enrichment and accumulation of enriched uranium. Its stockpile of high enriched uranium up to 60% has continued to grow significantly, without any credible civilian justification.”

Iran has also steadily increased its uranium production capacity over the last year by installing and activating newer, advanced centrifuges for the production of purified uranium.

“Iran’s escalating nuclear activities significantly harm international security and undermine the global non-proliferation architecture,” the statement warned.

The statement came following the release of the IAEA’s latest assessment of Iran’s compliance with Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) safeguards at the end of August. The assessment stated that Iran failed to comply with the demands of the most recent IAEA board resolution from June 2024.

That report revealed Iran's continued increase in its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, totaling 64.7 kilograms (142.7 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60% as of Aug. 17. This represents an increase of 22.6 kilograms (49.8 pounds) since the IAEA’s most recent May 2024 report.

Andrea Stricker, an FDD Research Fellow and Deputy Director of FDD’s Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program, said: “The U.S. intelligence community can no longer assert that Iran is not conducting nuclear-weapons activities, yet Washington’s Iran policy remains adrift. Lawmakers are rightly worried that the regime may exploit this policy failure and the disarray of the U.S. election season to sprint to nuclear weapons.”

In June, the Axios news outlet reported that, according to some U.S. and Israeli intelligence reports, Iranian nuclear scientists have been conducting work related to the “weaponization” of Iran’s nuclear material, while a story in the Wall Street Journal in early August quoted a U.S. official as saying the research “could shrink the knowledge gap Tehran faces in mastering the ability to build a weapon.”

If Russia is providing Iran with technical expertise to help it improve its manufacturing process, it could enable the regime to rapidly produce weapons-grade uranium in a short time period with its existing stockpile.