Statement by Ambassador James Kariuki, UK Deputy
Permanent Representative to the UN, at the UN Security Council
meeting on non-proliferation.
Colleagues, Iran continues to develop its nuclear programme to
levels that lack any credible civilian justification.
Iran is not only failing to uphold its JCPoA commitments, it is
peddling dangerous and escalatory rhetoric around its nuclear
capability and doctrine.
And Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium is already more than 32
times JCPoA limits.
On 6 December the IAEA reported that Iran had significantly
increased its production rate of 60% high enriched uranium, which
is now approximately five times higher than a month ago.
There is no justification for Iran's stockpiling of high enriched
uranium, which gives it the capability to rapidly produce enough
fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons.
Iran is the only state without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium
at this level.
We should be under no illusions as to Iran's growing
capabilities.
Iran's nuclear programme has never been so advanced. And the IAEA
can no longer assure us that its purposes are exclusively
peaceful.
We should all be worried about what this means for global
non-proliferation.
President, Iran has a choice: it can continue to escalate over
the coming months, or it can choose diplomacy.
It must choose the latter. The UK and our E3 partners are
determined to reach a diplomatic solution. We will continue to
engage Iran to find a constructive way forward.
But let us be clear. With UNSCR 2231 set to expire next October,
we are reaching a critical juncture. We will take every
diplomatic step to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,
including the triggering of snapback if necessary.
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