Iran ‘lying about nuclear bombs’
Netanyahu stokes flames by accusing Tehran of breaking ban
‘A horrible agreement’
BENJAMIN Netanyahu last night said he had evidence that Iran was ‘brazenly lying’ when it claimed never to have pursued nuclear weapons.
In a televised speech which will escalate tensions in the region, the Israeli prime minister unveiled ‘secret nuclear files’ which he said showed Tehran was deceiving the world.
In 2015, Iran signed up to a deal to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions – and maintained it had been pursuing only nuclear energy. But speaking from his country’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Mr Netanyahu said he had ‘half a ton’ of evidence to the contrary.
‘Iran’s leaders repeatedly deny ever pursuing nuclear weapons,’ he said. ‘Tonight I’m here to tell you one thing: Iran lied, big time. Iran is brazenly lying when it said it never had a nuclear weapons programme.’
Mr Netanyahu’s intervention is likely to strengthen Donald Trump’s resolve as he threatens to withdraw from the Iran accord – which he has dubbed the ‘worst deal ever’.
Britain and France are committed to upholding the deal.
The US president last night praised Mr Netanyahu’s presentation, saying it was ‘good’ and that it proved he had been ‘100% right’ about Iran. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Washington of trying to stoke a ‘regional crisis’.
Mr Netanyahu 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 in Tehran.’
Mr Netanyahu referred to a secret Iranian nuclear project, codenamed ‘Amad’. He added: ‘Even after the 2015 deal, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons knowledge for future use.’
He said Israel had obtained 55,000 pages of documents and 183 CDs of secret information about Project Amad.
‘We can now prove that Project Amad was a comprehensive prolocation gramme to design, build and test nuclear weapons,’ he said. ‘We can also prove that Iran is secretly storing Project Amad material to use at a time of its choice to develop nuclear weapons.’
The 2015 agreement, signed between Iran and six world powers, lifted crippling economic sanctions in return for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Mr Netanyahu had lobbied hard against the deal, calling it ‘a bad mistake of historic proportions’.
And last night Mr Trump said: ‘This is an agreement that wasn’t approved by too many people. It’s a horrible agreement for the US. We gave Iran $150billion and $1.8billion in cash – we got nothing. That doesn’t mean we won’t negotiate a new agreement – we’ll see what happens.’
Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei said last night: ‘Americans are trying to provoke Saudi Arabia against Tehran. Their aim is to create more regional crisis... to push Muslims to fight against Muslims. If these governments gain more wisdom, they will not confront Iran. If they confront Iran, they will be defeated.’