Boris warns of nuclear arms race if US pulls out of Iran deal
BORIS Johnson warns today that the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal could risk reigniting an atomic arms race in the Middle East.
The Foreign Secretary is in Washington today and tomorrow in a last-ditch bid to stop Donald Trump pulling out of the agreement.
The 2015 deal was signed by Iran, the US, the UK, China, Russia, Germany and France, and lifted sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.
But the US President has called it ‘insane’ and ‘the worst deal ever’. He is deciding whether to reimpose sanctions before a deadline on Saturday. This would essentially scupper the agreement.
In a dramatic statement on Iranian TV yesterday, president Hassan Rouhani said: ‘If the US leaves the nuclear agreement, you will soon see that they will regret it like never before in history.’
Today Mr Johnson argues the agreement has helped prevent a ‘possible catastrophe’ and increased the time it would take Iran to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb.
Writing in the New York Times, he said: ‘Imagine all the mutually contaminating civil wars and internecine conflicts that rage in the Middle East today. Then turn the dial and add in the possibility of a regional nuclear arms race triggered by Iran dashing for a bomb. That is the scenario which the agreement has helped to prevent.’
He added: ‘Of all the options we have for ensuring that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, this deal offers the fewest disadvantages. The wisest course would be to improve the handcuffs rather than break them.’
He is expected to hold talks with vice president Mike Pence and newly appointed national security adviser John Bolton.
Iranian officials have suggested Tehran’s response to sanctions would include restarting its uranium enrichment programme.
It comes a week after Israel accused Iran of breaching the deal, citing ‘secret nuclear files’ that showed Iran had retained information relating to a secret nuclear weapons programme it had run before 2003.