Channels

Photo: Yariv Katz
Netanyahu and Pompeo on Sunday
Photo: Yariv Katz

US: Israel's information on Iran nuclear program 'compelling'

White House says facts released by Prime Minister Netanyahu provide 'new and compelling details' about Tehran’s efforts to develop 'missile-deliverable nuclear weapons'; British government spokesman defends nuclear agreement, saying 'we have never been naive about Iran and its nuclear intentions.'

The White House said on Monday that information released by Israel on Iran’s nuclear program provides “new and compelling details” about Tehran’s efforts to develop “missile-deliverable nuclear weapons.”

 

 

“These facts are consistent with what the United States has long known: Iran had a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program that it has tried and failed to hide from the world and from its own people,” the White House statement said.

 

US President Donald Trump is due to decide by May 12 whether to pull the United States out of a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran.

 

US President Trump says Israel 'proven right' after Netanyahu's exposure of Iran's nuclear weapons archive (Photo: AFP)
US President Trump says Israel 'proven right' after Netanyahu's exposure of Iran's nuclear weapons archive (Photo: AFP)

 

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the information showed that Iran's leaders lied to their people about a nuclear weapons program known as "Project Amad". But Pompeo declined to say whether the documents provided evidence of a violation of the nuclear deal.

 

Intelligence experts and diplomats said Netanyahu's presentation, in a prime-time television presentation, did not seem to have a "smoking gun" showing a violation by Iran but it could strengthen the hand of advisers to US President Donald Trump who want to scrap the nuclear agreement.

 

Most of the purported evidence Netanyahu presented dated to the period before the 2015 accord was signed, although he said Iran had also kept important files on nuclear technology since then, and continued adding to its "nuclear weapons knowledge."

 

Tehran dismissed Netanyahu as "the boy who cried wolf", and called his presentation propaganda.

 

As he traveled back from Amman, Jordan, to Washington on Monday, Pompeo told reporters he and Netanyahu discussed the documents in Tel Aviv during a meeting on Sunday.

 

Pompeo said that while the existence of the Amad nuclear project was known for some time, the new material discovered by the Israelis will help better understand the scope and scale of the program.

 

He added that the documents make "very clear that at the very least the Iranians have continued to lie to their own people."

 

Asked whether the information indicated a violation of the Iran nuclear agreement, Pompeo responded: I'll leave that to lawyers. The president will ultimately have to make a determination about that too.

 

Trump responds to information released by Israel (Video: Reuters)    (צילום: רויטרס)

Trump responds to information released by Israel (Video: Reuters)

סגורסגור

שליחה לחבר

 הקלידו את הקוד המוצג
תמונה חדשה

שלח
הסרטון נשלח לחברך

סגורסגור

הטמעת הסרטון באתר שלך

 קוד להטמעה:

 

Trump has threatened to pull the United States out of the international deal unless it is renegotiated by May 12. After Netanyahu spoke, Trump repeated his criticism of the deal, suggesting he backed the Israeli leader's remarks.

 

At Israel's Defense Ministry, Netanyahu stood in front of stacks of files representing what he described as a vault full of Iranian nuclear documents obtained weeks before.

 

"Iran lied about never having a nuclear weapons program," he said. "One hundred thousand secret files prove it did. Second, even after the deal, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons knowledge for future use."

 

Although the presentation was live on Israeli television, Netanyahu made clear his audience was abroad, delivering most of his speech in English, before switching to Hebrew.

 

Netanyahu said he had shared the intelligence with the United States and would dispatch envoys to France and Germany to present it. He also spoke by phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

The White House later acknowledged receiving the information from Israel, saying it was examining it carefully.

 

An earlier statement by the White House stated that Iran "has" a clandestine nuclear weapons program before it corrected it to due to what it said was a clerical error.

 

A 2007 National Intelligence Estimate judged with "high confidence" that Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003. The IAEA later reached a similar judgment.

 

Iran has denied ever seeking nuclear weapons and accuses its arch-foe Israel of stirring up world suspicions against it.

 

A White House official said the information provided compelling details about "Iran's past efforts" to develop nuclear weapons.

 

Analysts, diplomats skeptical

Under the 2015 nuclear deal struck by Iran and six major powers—Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States—Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear program in return for relief from US and other economic sanctions.

 

Trump gave Britain, France and Germany a May 12 deadline to fix what he views as the deal's flaws—its failure to address Iran's ballistic missile program, the terms by which inspectors visit suspect Iranian sites, and "sunset" clauses under which some of its terms expire—or he will reimpose US sanctions.

 

Much of what Netanyahu presented is unlikely to surprise world powers, which have long concluded that Iran was pursuing atomic weapons before the agreement was signed in 2015. That is in part why they imposed sanctions in the first place.

 

Netanyahu presents 'conclusive proof' Iran lied 'big time' about nuclear weapons program (Photo: Orel Cohen)
Netanyahu presents 'conclusive proof' Iran lied 'big time' about nuclear weapons program (Photo: Orel Cohen)

 

The French ambassador to Washington, Gerard Araud, tweeted that information about past Iranian nuclear activity was in fact an argument in favor of the nuclear deal, not against it.

 

A German government spokesman said it was vital to keep the independent inspections provided for under the deal.

 

Some independent analysts and diplomats said Netanyahu appeared to be presenting old evidence.

 

A British government spokesman defended the accord, saying in a statement: "We have never been naive about Iran and its nuclear intentions."

 

"That is why the IAEA inspection regime agreed as part of the Iran nuclear deal is one of the most extensive and robust in the history of international nuclear accords," the spokesman added.

 

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, issued a statement saying Netanyahu's presentation will be assessed.

 

"I have not seen from Prime Minister Netanyahu arguments for the moment on non-compliance, meaning violation by Iran of its nuclear commitments under the (nuclear) deal," she said.

 

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says Netanyahu's presentation will be assessed (Photo: AFP)
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says Netanyahu's presentation will be assessed (Photo: AFP)

 

Speaking after Netanyahu's presentation, Trump told a White House news conference the nuclear deal was "a horrible agreement for the United States." He said it would let Tehran develop nuclear arms after seven years and had "proven right what Israel has done today" with Netanyahu's disclosures.

 

Washington itself has concluded, however, that Iran has not violated the deal's terms. Two US intelligence officials who have monitored Iran's nuclear weapons program for years said nothing in Netanyahu's remarks appeared to contradict that view.

 

"We have seen no new and credible evidence that Iran is violating the agreement, whether in the Prime Minister's remarks today or from other sources," said one of the officials, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.

 

Moments before Netanyahu spoke Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted: "The boy who can't stop crying wolf is at it again."

 

Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, although it neither confirms nor denies possessing atomic weapons.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

 


פרסום ראשון: 05.01.18, 08:15
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment