BTN News: Iran has “urged all the G7 to maintain their commitments to sovereignty and international law, eradicating all the destructive policies of the past as serial, plodding attempts to unleash a manufactured crisis,” the country tweeted in English; Iran criticized the G7 without mentioning the countries directly by name. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, appealed on June 16, in response to a G7 statement harshly condemning Iran’s stepped-up nuclear program.
The G7 issued a warning to Iran on Friday about its efforts to advance in nuclear enrichment. The group also said it was ready to slap fresh sanctions if Iran sent ballistic missiles to Moscow. The G7’s concerns were directly tied to the war in Ukraine, in a sign that Iran’s moves were connected in some way to the wider Russia-led geopolitical milieu.
Kanaani denied these charges, and stressed that the collection proclaims that there is no link between Iranian bilateral cooperation, and Russia and war in Ukraine, is nothing more than “biased political targets.” He warned that “certain countries” were using “false accusations” as a way to keep the sanctions against Iran going.
Meanwhile, the 35-nation Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Climate, witnessed a resolution pass last week. The resolution demanded Iran cooperate with the agency and halt its recent curbing of International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. Millmore also flagged an IAEA report that showed Iran had been stepping up the installation of more uranium-enriching centrifuges at its Fordow facility, and that it was installing more equipment generally.
Mr. Kanaani insisted that despite these escalations, Tehran remained committed to “constructive interaction and technical cooperation” with the IAEA, but he decried the resolution as “politically motivated and unbalanced.
Now, Iran is enriching uranium to 60% purity, near the 90% level needed for bomb-grade material. By an IAEA yardstick, Iran already holds a stock of the material that, if further enriched, could technically yield enough for three atomic bombs.
Watch this space as things rage on, the civilized Petro-king, the uncivilized Pariah–or both of them–among mega-free-for-all players with the eyes of world powers upon them. They are rivals that share a common fear of nuclear weapons, and the sharp message from the G7, a rectangular table of foreign ministers from the West’s leading powers, serves to show how high the stakes are as two sides cautiously probe one another’s red lines while juggling a free-fall in regional security dynamics.
