G7 Warns Iran Over Nuclear Escalations

The Group of Seven (G7) leaders warned Iran on Friday regarding its accelerating nuclear enrichment activities and cautioned Tehran against providing ballistic missiles to Russia for use in the Ukraine war.

The G7 urged Iran "to cease and reverse nuclear escalations, and stop the continuing uranium enrichment activities that have no credible civilian justifications."

The rebuke comes after a UN nuclear watchdog report on Thursday revealed that Iran has rapidly installed more uranium enrichment centrifuges at its Fordow site and begun setting up additional ones.

In its report, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed on Monday that Iran had started feeding uranium into three cascades of advanced IR-4 and IR-6 centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment facility.

Cascades are groups of centrifuges that spin uranium gas to enrich it more quickly.

While Iran is currently enriching uranium up to only 2 per cent purity in these new cascades, it already enriches uranium up to 60 per cent elsewhere, which is just a technical step away from 90 per cent weapons-grade levels.

The G7 statement emphasized the need for Iran to "engage in serious dialogue and provide convincing assurances that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful, in full cooperation and compliance with the IAEA's monitoring and verification mechanism," Reuters reported. 

Additionally, the leaders warned of "significant measures" if Iran were to conclude a deal sending ballistic missiles and related technology to Russia to aid its invasion of Ukraine.

"We call on Iran to stop assisting Russia's war in Ukraine and not to transfer ballistic missiles and related technology, as this would represent a substantive material escalation and a direct threat to European security," they said.