LFI today publishes a paper warning that 2025 represents a pivotal year for preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
The paper outlines how Iran has developed the capability to build nuclear weapons within a matter of months, highlighting the urgent need for coordinated international action to prevent nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. It also warns that Tehran getting nuclear weapons would increase Iranian threats to the UK in the Middle East and in Europe.
With the October 2025 deadline approaching for the UK and other JCPOA signatories to “snapback” key UN sanctions, immediate action is needed to curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions and prevent a regional arms race.
- As our latest policy paper outlines, Iran now possesses sufficient highly enriched uranium for multiple devices and could produce weapons-grade material within weeks. Technical assessments suggest Iran could produce a crude nuclear device within six months and a missile-capable warhead within 1-2 years.
- The regime’s stated commitment to Israel’s destruction makes Iranian nuclear capabilities an existential threat that Israel cannot tolerate. Iran’s nuclear programme also threatens to trigger a wider Middle Eastern arms race. Russia’s sharing of nuclear technology with Iran compounds the urgency of the situation and threatens global non-proliferation efforts.
This paper argues that the UK has an important role to play in stopping the danger:
- Confront Iran now, at a moment of relative weakness, will curtail its ability to pose greater threats, backed by nuclear weapons, in the future.
- Back US efforts to tighten up sanctions – curtailing oil sales to China which are keeping Iran’s economy afloat – and promote an international alignment with European, Arab and G7 allies, to bring significant pressure on the Iranian regime.
- Help to isolate Iran and curtail its threat to the UK by proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
- Prepare to implement the “snapback mechanism” to reimpose UN nuclear sanctions on Tehran unless there’s a clear and irreversible change in Iranian policy.
- Stand firm with allies against Tehran’s threats, strengthening multilateral deterrence.
Download this policy paper
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Iran Nuclear Timeline
View Tehran’s race to develop nuclear weapons at at a glance from the mid-1980s to today. 2025 is a pivotal year to stop Iran going nuclear.
