No ‘deal-cheat’ in Bibi’s big reveal

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IRAN LIES, ARCHIVES N-ARMS BID IN ISRAEL SHOW-AND-TELL

TEL AVIV, April 30, (Agencies): Israel presented on Monday what it said was evidence that Iran had continued gathering nuclear knowledge after signing a 2015 agreement with world powers to curb it, calling on Washington to jettison the agreement.

“Iran’s leaders repeatedly deny ever pursuing nuclear weapons,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a televised address carried by Israeli networks. “Tonight I’m here to tell you one thing: Iran lied.”

“First, Iran lied about never having a nuclear weapons programme. 100,000 secret files prove it did. Second, even after the deal, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons knowledge for future use,” Netanyahu said. “Third, Iran lied again in 2015 when it didn’t come clear to the IAEA as required by the nuclear deal.”

Secret
The Israeli leader spoke in English and showed pictures and videos purporting to be of historic secret Iranian nuclear facilities, as well as Iranian documents and plans to develop atomic weapons. “After signing the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran intensified its efforts to hide its secret files,” he said. “In 2017 Iran moved its nuclear weapons files to a highly secret location in Tehran.”

Netanyahu referred to a secret Iranian nuclear project, codenamed “Amad”, which he said had been shelved in 2003, but he said work in the field had continued. US President Donald Trump has long criticised the 2015 agreement, under which world powers lifted economic sanctions on Iran in return for curbs to its nuclear programme. Trump has threatened to pull out of the agreement in the coming weeks unless it is renegotiated.

Netanyahu said he expected Trump would do “the right thing” in reviewing the Iran deal. Netanyahu met in Tel Aviv on Sunday with new US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and both men talked tough about Iran. “We remain deeply concerned about Iran’s dangerous escalation of threats towards Israel and the region,” said Pompeo. Netanyahu said: “I think the greatest threat to the world and to our two countries, and to all countries, is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons, and specifically the attempt of Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.” Netanyahu also discussed Iran by telephone with Trump over the weekend. Israel has long opposed the agreement, while Washington’s major European allies have urged the Trump administration not to abandon it and argue that Iran is abiding by its terms.

Technical capability
The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy organisation said on Monday that Iran has the technical capability to enrich uranium to a higher level than it could before the multinational deal was reached. “Technically, we are fully prepared to enrich uranium higher than we used to produce before the deal was reached … I hope Trump comes to his senses and stays in the deal,” Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted by Iranian state television as saying.

Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, though it neither confirms nor denies possessing atomic weapons. Trump said on Monday that pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal would not have a negative impact on his upcoming nuclear talks with North Korea, and he said he would be open to negotiating a new nuclear accord with Tehran. “I think it sends the right message,” Trump told a news conference when asked if pulling out of the Iran deal would send the wrong message to Pyongyang. “You know in seven years, that deal will have expired and Iran is free to go ahead and create nuclear weapons.” Trump declined to say whether the United States would pull out of the nuclear deal before a May 12 deadline for a decision, saying: “We’ll see what happens.” But he expressed his dissatisfaction with the pact. “That is just not an acceptable situation. They’re not sitting back idly. They’re setting off missiles, which they say are for television purposes. I don’t think so,” Trump said, adding, “That doesn’t mean we won’t negotiate a real agreement.”

Stick with deal
Russian President Vladimir Putin and French leader Emmanuel Macron on Monday urged the world to stick with the Iranian nuclear deal as US President Donald Trump weighs up whether to scrap it. The Kremlin said Putin and Macron were both calling for “strict observance” of the hard-fought 2015 agreement, which Trump has threatened to torpedo.

The US leader has a May 12 deadline to decide on whether or not to walk away from the deal, which he has derided as “insane” partly because its restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities begin expiring in 2025. Macron’s office said he and Putin “expressed their common will to preserve the gains from the agreement”, which saw Iran agree to freeze its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.

On Sunday, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said Trump had yet to decide whether or not to walk away from the agreement. The US suspended nuclear-related sanctions after the deal was agreed, but the president has regularly to confirm the waiver.

Major European powers Britain, France and Germany all remain committed to the deal, saying it is the best way to keep Tehran from getting a nuclear bomb. Macron has positioned himself as an emissary for European officials seeking a compromise that would keep the deal intact, and has previously suggested an additional deal that extends Iran’s nuclear restrictions.

Unfounded accusations
Iran on Monday dismissed “unfounded” accusations by new US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over its “ambition to dominate the Middle East”. Pompeo lashed out at Tehran on Sunday during a rapid tour of Middle East allies ahead of a crucial White House decision on whether to quit a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Speaking during a visit to Iran’s arch-rival and key US ally Saudi Arabia just days after he took office, Pompeo accused Tehran of destabilising the Middle East through its support for Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and for rebels in Yemen. “The US secretary of state’s remarks on the presence and role of the Islamic Republic of Iran in certain countries in the region are a repetition of absurd and unfounded accusations,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said in a statement Monday. Iran’s presence in Syria and Iraq is in response to requests from the two countries’ governments and is part of “the fight against terrorism in the region”, he said.

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