On Monday in a live television appearance Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that Mossad (Israel’s secret service) had found extensive documents detailing aspects of Tehran’s secret nuclear weapons programme.
In his appearance, Netanyahu said Iran had been lying when it claimed it had no aim of constructing a nuclear weapon. He asserted the nuclear deal signed in 2015 between Iran and the UN Security Council’s permanent members and Germany was “built on a lie” and urged President Donald Trump to scrap it after revising the deal on May 12.
Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP today said that the UK would be sticking with the deal, while acknowledging that it was “not based on trust about Iran’s intentions; rather it is based on tough verification”.
Mr Johnson, in his statement, said that: “The fact that Iran conducted sensitive research in secret until 2003 shows why we need the intrusive inspections allowed by the Iran nuclear deal today”.
Speaking at the Tel Aviv Defence Ministry headquarters, Netanyahu claimed Israeli intelligence had covertly obtained Iran’s own archived nuclear weapons programme paperwork: 55,000 pages, and another 55,000 files on 183 CDs. That archive comprehensively lists the progress of Iran’s programme to build nuclear weapons, named Project Amad.
Mr Netanyahu reported that Iran was working on five stages of a nuclear weapons programme including designed weapons, developing nuclear cores, implosion systems, preparing test sites and integrating warheads on missiles.
Iran, which has continuously said its nuclear programme was for strictly peaceful means, dismissed Netanyahu’s presentation on Monday. Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif said: “The boy who can’t stop crying wolf is at it again.”
United States President, Donald Trump said he will most probably remove the US from the deal if it is not “fixed” by May 12th, a deadline by which he must sign waivers in order to continue the country’s involvement in the deal.
