'Iran did not come clean on its nuclear program,' Netanyahu
says, saying more than 100,000 Iranian documents Israel obtained prove
nuclear 'deal is based on lies' ■ Speech comes on heels of strike
against two bases in Syria and ahead of Trump's decision on nuclear deal
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
revealed a cache of documents he says proves Iran lied to the world
about its nuclear program for years, even after the 2015 nuclear deal
with the world. "Iran did not come clean about its nuclear program,"
Netanyahu said in a prime time address in English.
Presenting
55,000 pages of documents and 183 CDs, Netanyahu said Iran hid an
"atomic archive" of documents on its nuclear program.
See Netanyahu's speech here: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/pm-expected-to-reveal-how-iran-cheated-world-on-nuke-program-1.6045300
"This
is an original Iranian presentation from these files," Netanyahu said,
stressing that "the mission statement is to design, produce and test
five warheads with 10 kilaton of TNT yield for integration on missiles."
Iran
is "blatantly lying" when it says it doesn't have a nuclear program,
Netanyahu claimed, laying out what he claimed was proof Iran had
developed and continued to develop its nuclear program.
At the press conference, Netanyahu exposed a secret Iranian nuclear project, codenamed "Amad," which he said had been shelved in 2003, though he said work in the field had continued.
"After
signing the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran intensified its efforts to hide
its secret files," Netanyahu said. "In 2017 Iran moved its nuclear
weapons files to a highly secret location in Tehran."
"We
can now prove that project Amad was a comprehensive program 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." Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizdeh is the head of
project Amad.
Netanyahu concluded by saying "Iran lied about never having a secret nuclear program. Secondly, even after the deal, it continued to expand its nuclear program for future use. Thirdly, Iran lied by not coming clean to the IAEA," he said, adding that, "the nuclear deal is based on lies based on Iranian deception."
U.S. President Donald Trump, who spoke publicly 30 minutes after Netanyahu's speech, said that Netanyahu's speech "showed that I was 100% right" in criticizing the Iran nuclear deal.
Prior
to Netanyahu's conference, Trump spoke with Netanyahu over the phone on
Sunday to discuss the current situation in the Middle East, the White
House said. The readout of their phone conversation stated that they "discussed the continuing threats and challenges facing the Middle East region, especially the problems posed by the Iranian regime’s destabilizing activities."
In
a rare move, Netanyahu called the heads of Israel's two news broadcasts
and updated them with the content of his planned statement.
Javad
Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, said before Netanyahu's speech that the
prime minister is just "the boy who can't stop crying wolf at it
again."
Netanyahu's speech comes after an airstrike in Syria
Sunday night in which 200 missiles were destroyed and 11 Iranians were
killed, according to pro-Assad sources. Various reports attribute the
strike to Israel, but the origin of the attack remains unconfirmed.
According
to several Syrian media outlets, the strikes targeted the 47th Brigade
base in the southern Hama district, a military facility in northwestern
Hama, and a facility north of the Aleppo International Airport. The
strike reportedly targeted an arms depot of missiles.
The
strikes came as tensions increase between Israel and Iran in Syria and
the U.S. deadline on Iranian sanctions regarding the nuclear deal, May
12, draws near.
Israeli defense and political sources told Russia and the United States
on Sunday that if Iran attacks Israel from Syria, either itself or
through its proxy, Hezbollah, Jerusalem will respond forcefully and
target Iranian soil.
Later, Iran's deputy foreign minister said that the current terms of the Iran deal are no longer sustainable for them- regardless of whether or not the U.S. ends the deal.
"The
status quo of the deal is simply not sustainable for us, whether or not
the Americans get out of the deal," Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas
Araghchi said, according to Iranian news agency Isna.
Meanwhile, world leaders such as France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Angela Merkel
have visited U.S. President Trump in an attempt to convince him to
maintain the terms of the nuclear deal, termed the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Trump spoke with Netanyahu,
who vocally opposes the deal, over the phone on Sunday to discuss the
current situation in the Middle East, the White House said. The readout
of their phone conversation stated that they "discussed the continuing
threats and challenges facing the Middle East region, especially the
problems posed by the Iranian regime’s destabilizing activities."
Visiting in Israel Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
said the United States will cancel the Iran nuclear deal if it is not
fixed. Pompeo made the statement following a meeting with Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speaking
to reporters after the meeting, which took place at the Israeli
military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Pompeo said the U.S. stands with
Israel against Iran. "We remain deeply concerned about Iran's dangerous
escalation of threats toward Israel and the region," Pompeo said, adding
that the U.S. supports Israel's right to defend itself.
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