Israel alleges secret Iranian nuclear cache
Netanyahu tells U.N.‘atomic warehouse’ kept near capital
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu displays a graphic Thursday at the U.N. General Assembly as he accuses Iran of having a “secret atomic warehouse” near Tehran that he said contains tons of nuclear equipment and material. Iran’s state media called the charge “ridiculous.”
UNITED NATIONS — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran on Thursday of keeping a “secret atomic warehouse” just outside its capital, despite the 2015 deal with world powers that was meant to keep it from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Holding up a poster-board map of an area near Tehran before world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, Netanyahu said Iranian officials were keeping tons of nuclear equipment and material in a warehouse near a rug-cleaning operation.
Iranian state media outlets called the announcement “ridiculous” and an “illusion.”
Netanyahu’s disclosure — which he presented on the international community’s biggest stage — came four months after Israel announced the existence of what it said was a “half-ton” of Iranian nuclear documents obtained by Israeli intelligence agencies in the Shourabad neighborhood near Tehran. Israel said the cache proved that Iranian leaders covered up their nuclear weapons program before signing the nuclear agreement. Iran hasn’t acknowledged the alleged seizure.
“You have to ask yourself a question: Why did Iran keep a secret atomic archive and a secret atomic warehouse?” he asked. “What Iran hides, Israel will find.”
The new site Netanyahu identified sits a short distance from Shourabad.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, said Thursday that there’s nothing to Netanyahu’s allegations, according to a state-run media report.
Zarif noted the International Atomic Energy Agency has certified that Iran is in compliance with its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal meant to keep it from developing nuclear weapons.
In a tweet, Zarif called Netanyahu’s presentation an “arts and crafts show” by a country that he said needs to come clean about its own nuclear program.
Iran’s state-run, English-language Press TV channel carried Netanyahu’s remarks live but cut away after he made the allegation about the nuclear warehouse.
The 2015 Iran nuclear deal came after years of Western sanctions over the country’s contested atomic program. The West long has feared it could be used to build nuclear bombs. Iran long has denied seeking atomic weapons.
Under terms of the deal, Iran is allowed to keep documents and other research. The deal strictly limits how many centrifuges Iran can use and how large of a low-enriched uranium stockpile the country can keep.
Netanyahu said the warehouse stored “massive amounts of equipment and materiel,” and he said Israel shared the information with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Vienna-based agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
He noted that Israel had long opposed the multinational agreement with Iran. Israel considers Iran its biggest threat, citing Tehran’s calls for Israel’s destruction, its support for hostile militant organizations like the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group and Iran’s development of long-range missiles.
U.S. President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the nuclear deal in May, and his administration has been reimposing sanctions on Iran. Israel applauded Trump’s decision, but many other nations lamented it as jeopardizing what they saw as the best chance for keeping Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed power.
“Instead of coddling Iran’s dictators,” other countries should support the sanctions, Netanyahu said to applause.
Separately, Iran’s president said Thursday that the U.N. Security Council meeting chaired by Trump the previous day reflected America’s increasing isolation among the international community.
“Nobody backed the United States, putting America into a unique historical and political isolation,” said Hassan Rouhani.
According to the Iranian leader, Trump achieved the opposite of what he’d hoped for — in the Security Council meeting, 14 countries either directly or indirectly backed the nuclear agreement of Iran, the United States and five other major powers.
“Very interesting, someone invites leaders to a U.N. Security Council meeting after himself having trampled on a resolution by the very same council,” Rouhani said, referring to the council resolution that backed the landmark 2015 nuclear deal.
On Wednesday, Rouhani told reporters at the United Nations that the U.S. withdrawal from the deal was “a mistake” and that he believes America will “sooner or later” support the deal.
Information for this article was contributed by Nasser Karimi, Ian Deitch and Jon Gambrell of The Associated Press.