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.
