Israel exposes Iran’s nuclear weapons program
Benjamin Netanyahu is waiting with baited breath to find out whether his intelligence coup from Iran, revealed in a dramatic speech on Monday, is enough to derail the”terrible” nuclear deal.
BENJAMIN Netanyahu is waiting with baited breath to find out whether his intelligence coup from Iran, revealed in a dramatic speech on Monday, is enough to derail the”terrible” nuclear deal.
Meanwhile, as alarm about Iran’s possible nuclear ambitions and its actions in Syria converge, there is more talk than ever of Israel and Iran going to war.
Just one day before Netanyahu’s speech, there was a strike against a Syrian munitions facility, and 16 people were reported killed, including several Iranians.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the strike but Iran is blaming Israel, and Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli military intelligence head, predicted that Iran may well seek retribution. Meanwhile, he said, Israel is showing “resolve to impose growing costs on Tehran” for getting more entrenched in Syria.
US officials have been quoted anonymously saying that Israel is preparing for military action and looking to Washington for support. In Israel, many see the latest developments in Knesset as setting the stage for armed conflict.
On Monday, politicians voted for an amendment that allows just the Prime Minister and Defence Minister to approve military operations in extreme circumstances, instead of needing to get the green light from cabinet colleagues.
The Iranian born Israeli analyst Meir Javedanfar told The AJN that the latest events indicate that “Israel is done using diplomacy” and “we are moving closer and closer to a scenario of war between Israel and Iran and Syria.”
For Netanyahu’s big revelation, the PM stood at Israel’s Defence Ministry, in front of replicas of Iranian files containing information on how to make nuclear bombs.
Israel had sneaked some 55,000 pages out of Iran, plus another 55,000 files on 183 CDs. He stood by huge cabinets, speaking of his hope that Donald Trump will do the “right thing.” Trump is due to decide by next Saturday whether the US will pull out of the West’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
To Netanyahu’s delight, Trump responded positively, saying the Tel Aviv presentation showed he “was 100 per cent right” with his own criticism of the Iran deal. Iran’s Foreign Minister called Netanyahu “the boy who cries wolf” just before Trump’s deadline, and European powers were nonchalant.
Iran’s conventional military power, as well as potential nuclear strength, is under the spotlight this week, as alarm grows over its power on Israel’s doorstep.
No country or militia has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s strike, but it came on the same day that Israel’s Defence Minister stressed his country’s free hand in Syria. “We will keep our freedom of operation in all of Syria,” said Avigdor Lieberman. “We have no intention to attack Russia or to interfere in domestic Syrian issues. But if somebody thinks that it is possible to launch missiles or to attack Israel or even our aircraft, no doubt we will respond and we will respond very forcefully.”
Israel and the US administration see the strength of Iran’s conventional army and its potential nuclear power as two sides of the same coin. In Jerusalem on Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Trump’s “comprehensive Iran strategy” addresses all aspects of the threat from Tehran. These include Iran’s missile systems and its support for Hezbollah.
The main claims of Netanyahu’s speech were that Iran was lying when it claimed to have never operated a nuclear weapons program. He said that after the 2015 deal with the West, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons know-how, asking: “Why would a terrorist regime hide and meticulously catalogue its secret nuclear files, if not to use them at a later date?”
Netanyahu said it was known for years that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program called Project Amad, and the documents prove that it was a “comprehensive program to design, build and test nuclear weapons” and that “Iran is secretly storing Project Amad material to use at a time of its choice to develop nuclear weapons.”
As he showed a document from Iran on a huge screen Netanyahu said: “You don’t need to read Farsi to read 10 kilotons here. TNT. This is the specific goal of Project Amad. That’s like five Hiroshima bombs to be put on ballistic missiles.”
It was a public display of intelligence information like the Israelis had never seen before, and the nation was impressed by what was obtained — as were Netanyahu’s political foes. “This is an incredible achievement based on years of work by Israel’s intelligence services,” said Yair Lapid, a nemesis of the PM in Knesset and leader of the Yesh Atid party. “If anyone in the international community needed evidence that Iran has lied all these years, Israel’s intelligence services have the proof.”
But not everyone was sure that Netanyahu did the right thing by showing the stash on primetime TV. “I fell out of the chair because I did not understand why we should expose everything to the world,” Ram Ben-Barak, former deputy head of the Mossad, told an interviewer.
He said that the public revelation gives the Iranians chance to cover their tracks and said: “I am convinced that most of the intelligence and army personnel were against this show.”
Others placed dampers on the reaction, by saying that the international community knew all along that Iran lied when it denied pursuing nuclear weapons, and this was the reason that it cut the nuclear deal in the first place.
“There is no smoking gun in the exposé which proves that Iran does not comply with the agreement,” said Shaul Horev, former head of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission.
Pompeo saw the files for himself in Israel this week, before Netanyahu’s speech, and has said that the administration is now “assessing what the discovery” means for the future of the nuclear deal.
He said that the documents are authentic, and echoed Netanyahu’s claim that the nuclear deal was built on deception. “Iran had many opportunities over the years to turn over its files to international inspectors from the IAEA and admit its nuclear weapons work,” said Pompeo, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“Instead, they lied to the IAEA repeatedly. They also lied about their program to the six nations who negotiated the Iran nuclear deal. What this means is the deal was not constructed on a foundation of good faith or transparency.”
NATHAN JEFFAY
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