Iran remains ever-present threat, says Israel's defense chief

In an open letter organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), the former commanders said that “it is time to let Israel finish the job against the Iranian axis and stop Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold” and urged Washington to provide military assistance.

"A nuclear Iran would be a threat to US national security," the letter reads. "What Israel seeks from the United States is support to ensure the maximum effectiveness of its actions and manage the risk of Iranian retaliation. We should provide it expeditiously."

Referring to Iran's rising enrichment and obstruction of IAEA inspectors, it said more must be done to defend the Jewish state.

“With Iran capable of producing weapons-grade uranium in just days, working toward a nuclear weapon, and building ever-deeper underground facilities, time is running out to stop its march to the bomb,” the former generals added.

While acknowledging that diplomacy is preferable, the signatories said they doubt Iran would negotiate in good faith. "Repeated negotiations with Iran over two decades have led to one dangerous result: The world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism now stands on the cusp of developing the world’s most dangerous weapons," they wrote.

In early-February, Trump declared the return of the so-called maximum pressure on Tehran, vowing to block its paths to a nuclear weapon.

"Iran remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terror," the memo read, blaming Tehran for supporting militant groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visiting Israel last week, called Iran the single greatest source of instability in the Middle East. "There can never be a nuclear Iran," Rubio said. "That can never happen."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during the same press conference that "Israel and America are shoulder-to-shoulder in countering the threat of Iran."

The remarks to the United Nations nuclear watchdog underscore a harder new line by the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has vowed to bar Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

They came in the form of a statement responding to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi's report to the IAEA board the previous day documenting a sharp rise in Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

"It underscores the existential threat that Iran’s nuclear program poses to the international community," interim US envoy to international organizations in Vienna Howard Solomon said in a statement.

"It appears Iran is attempting either to extort the international community or hedge closer toward nuclear weapons. I will be plain and simple: this is a very dangerous strategy for Iran. We will not be extorted."

Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and has branded suspicions over its intentions as a way for outside powers to meddle in internal affairs.

Grossi reported that Iran's uranium stock refined to up to 60% purity grew by 92.5 kilograms (kg) in the past quarter to 274.8 kg. According to an IAEA yardstick, the amount is enough in principle for six nuclear bombs if enriched further.

“Iran is the only non-nuclear weapon State enriching to this level, causing me serious concern,” he said.

The European Union on Tuesday also urged Iran to immediately halt and reverse its accelerating nuclear program.

“In light of these multiple and grave concerns, we strongly urge Iran to reverse its alarming nuclear trajectory and return to its nuclear non-proliferation commitments without further delay,” the EU said in a statement.

It represented one of the bloc's strongest statements yet on Iran's nuclear program.

Beyond uranium enrichment, Iran’s refusal to allow key verification and monitoring activities under a now defunct 2015 nuclear deal has deepened unease over Iran's intentions.

Trump has mooted a deal over the program but Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ruled out talks, setting the two sides up for further confrontation.

“If Iran wants a deal, the path starts with ceasing its escalatory nuclear activities, fulfilling its safeguards obligations, building international confidence, and allowing the Agency to provide assurance that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful," Solomon added.

"At least 66 cases of State hostage-taking in the Islamic Republic of Iran have been reported since 2010," the report released on Tuesday said.

"Journalists, aid workers, academics, business travelers and human rights defenders are especially vulnerable," it added. "Dual nationals are often specifically targeted, and, in some cases, those individuals have been denied consular assistance from their other country of nationality."

The report covered hostage-taking in an array of countries and cited an International Court of Justice ruling that states like Iran and not just militant groups take part in the practice.

Iran denies a policy of hostage-taking but has repeatedly seized dissidents, foreigners and dual nationals in exchange for its detained nationals and economic concessions.

“Hostage-taking is cruelty – plain and simple – and almost always involves torture,” Edwards said. “It inflicts severe physical and psychological suffering on both hostages and their families.”

The German embassy in Tehran is investigating reports of the detention of a German national and has raised the matter with Iranian authorities, a source from the German Federal Foreign Office told Iran International on Sunday.

As a diplomatic standoff over Tehran's disputed nuclear program deepens, Iran has been detaining more Western citizens.

Iran last month charged a British couple in the midst of a worldwide road trip with espionage. The United Kingdom is one of three European countries involved in ongoing talks with Tehran over the nuclear dossier.

Another, France, has protested Iran's continued detention of three of its nationals.

The upgrading of Iran to the highest tier of the United Kingdom's Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) due to be rolled out in the summer ratchets up tension between the nuclear-armed security council member state and the Islamic Republic.

Under the designation, Iran and anybody acting on its behalf would be deemed a potential security threat and compelled to register their activities in the UK. Not doing so would potentially incur a five-year prison sentence.

"We will place the whole of the Iranian state, including Iran's intelligence services, the IRGC and MOIS (Ministry of Intelligence), on to the enhanced tier of the new foreign influence registration scheme," Jarvis told parliament.

Jarvis was referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a paramilitary organization at the heart of the Iranian establishment which oversees foreign operations including aid to militant groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Pointing to threats from Iran, he mentioned that in December 2023, a Chechnya-born individual was sentenced to three and a half years in jail by a British court for collecting information for terrorist purposes. He had been arrested earlier that year in a Starbucks near Iran International’s premises after being spotted filming the broadcaster’s building in West London.

"The national protective security authority and counter-terrorism police will continue to provide protective security advice and support to individuals and organizations threatened by the Iranian regime and its criminal proxies, including Persian-language media organizations and their employees," Jarvis told the parliament.

The UK and European states have so far stopped short of following the United States in designating the IRGC a terrorist organization.

According to an announcement by UK counter-terrorism police in 2023, UK security forces foiled 15 kidnapping and murder plots against British or UK-based targets deemed Tehran's enemies.

Jarvis said that since 2022, 20 Iranian-backed plots putting the lives of British citizens or UK residents at risk had been foiled, adding that the number of state-level investigations run by MI5 had jumped by 48% in the past year.

"It's clear that these plots are a conscious strategy of the Iranian regime to stifle criticism through intimidation and fear," he noted.

Journalism watchdog Reporters Without Borders said last year that Tehran was carrying out "systematic targeting of journalists reporting on Iran from abroad, in an effort to silence them."

"London, home to major Persian-language broadcasters, has been a hotspot for such attacks because of the large number of Iranian journalists based there," the group added.

The British government last month denied funding an Iranian influence network in Western countries, rejecting remarks by a Swedish-Iranian scholar who said his involvement in the initiative was backed by the UK government.

Trump conveyed his administration’s interest in engaging Iran to President Vladimir Putin in a phone call in February, according to a report by Bloomberg earlier, adding that the talks would also cover Tehran's support for armed militant groups.

"Russia believes that the United States and Iran should resolve all problems through negotiations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, adding that Moscow “is ready to do everything in its power to achieve this.”

Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said Iran was among the issues discussed at recent Russia-US negotiations in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Both sides had agreed to meet separately to discuss the issue, he added.

Asked about potential Russian mediation between Tehran and Washington, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said offers of assistance from various nations were natural.

"Given the importance of these matters, it is expected that numerous parties will express goodwill and a willingness to assist with various issues," spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said during a televised press conference in Tehran on Monday. "Therefore, it is natural for countries to offer aid when deemed necessary."

Talks, not war

British newspaper the Daily Telegraph cited an Iranian official in Tehran saying Trump's blowout with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House last week had made Iran wary of engagement with the volatile US leader.

“Officials from the Kremlin contacted the supreme national security council and said Putin wants to mediate and he’s ready to facilitate direct talks between Iran and America,” the official was quoted as saying.

“They said Trump wants to talk and is preferring it over war but, here, there is a big uncertainty around it after what happened in the White House last week.”

The Trump administration last week stepped up pressure on Ukraine into accepting a deal to end the war. The proposal broadly seeks peace in exchange for Ukraine ceding captured territory to Russia.

According to sources familiar with the discussions who spoke with Bloomberg, US and Russian officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, discussed Washington's interest in Russian assistance with Iranian issues during a February 18 meeting in Riyadh.

Subsequently, Russia's Lavrov shared details of the US meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, during a meeting in Tehran, as Araghchi confirmed in a televised press conference.

However, Araghchi later claimed that Lavrov had not conveyed a message from the United States during his Tehran visit, and that no such message was anticipated.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced the revitalization of sanctions under his “maximum pressure” policy. He underlined that his main demand is for Iran never to acquire nuclear weapons.

Last month, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Trump cannot be trusted—pointing to his withdrawal from the Obama-era nuclear deal during his first term—and added that Iran would not be pressured into negotiations.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said last week that despite his own belief in the value of engaging with the US, he would align with Khamenei’s stance as long as Washington maintains economic sanctions on Iran.