Iran monitor: No nukes

THE WATCHDOG group in charge of monitoring Iran’s nuclear program said that it has not seen any evidence the country was developing a nuclear weapon since nearly a decade ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (photo), a longtime opponent of the Iran deal signed in 2015 to curb its capabilities, laid out intelligence evidence on Monday that he said showed a secret weapons program.

Iranian leaders have maintained that the nuclear program was only for peaceful uses, though the international community that led to the historic deal had previously worried that it could inject weapons of mass destruction into a web of Middle East conflicts already taut with tension.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which operates under the United Nations, responded to Netanyahu’s attentiongrabbing speech on Tuesday by pointing to the fact that it did not have evidence of any moves towards a nuclear bomb for years. “The agency had no credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device after 2009,” the group said, referencing a report on the matter done after the deal.

Though there were structures for potentially making a bomb before 2003, it now considers the issue closed, the agency said.

The 2015 deal saw Iran agree to steep curbs in its nuclear program, as well as international monitoring, in exchange for billions in relief from international sanctions that had crippled its economy.

President Trump, who slammed the Obama administration deal during his campaign, faces a routine May 12 deadline to certify the deal after saying earlier this year that he had done so for the last time.