Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of reports that Iran has begun enriching uranium to 20 per cent fissile purity at its nuclear facility in Fordow in breach of the JCPOA nuclear deal.

Iran has been in non-compliance with its Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) commitments since 2019. This includes producing Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) at 60%, which is unprecedented for a state without a nuclear weapons programme. Iran's increasing 60% stockpile is bringing Iran significantly closer to having fissile material which could be used for nuclear weapons.

We call upon Iran to halt all activities in violation of the JCPoA without delay and take the opportunity in front of them in the JCPoA Vienna negotiations to restore the nuclear deal. If a deal is not swiftly concluded, and Iran continues its nuclear escalation, Iran will be responsible for missing the opportunity to restore the JCPoA and for bringing about the collapse of the deal. Iran's nuclear escalation means we have weeks, not months, to restore the deal before the JCPoA's core non-proliferation benefits are lost and the deal collapses. In the event of the JCPoA collapsing, we would carefully consider all options in partnership with our allies.