Netanyahu's claims cast shadow on Iran nuclear deal with US, others

With less than two weeks to go for US President Donald Trump to recertify the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Israel has revealed more than 1,00,000 confiscated documents that allegedly expose Iran’s secret nuclear weapon programme.

The 2015 nuclear deal—brokered under the earlier Barack Obama administration—was a strategic pact that eased crippling economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbing the nuclear developments in the country. As of 2015, Iran was extracting the most fissile Uranium isotope—U-235, an isotope which can be used as fuel for nuclear power plants at a lower concentration and to produce nuclear weapons at a higher enrichment. Though Iran had repeatedly said that its intentions were purely for peaceful energy purposes, the possibility of the country being a nuclear power posed threat to international security.

On July 15, 2015, the US allegedly strong-armed Iran to sign the nuclear deal with six world powers—the US, UK, Russia, France, Germany and China, and the EU. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) imposed restrictions on the country’s nuclear developments by offering to lift heavy economic sanctions that were imposed by the six countries. The clauses of JCPOA included restriction on Iran’s nuclear enrichment rate of 3.67 (safe as nuclear fuel) in addition to the reduction of its uranium stockpile by 98 per cent to 300kg for 15 years. It also allowed inspectors from the UN to examine any suspicious nuclear sites.

In the name of national security, Iran had denied access to inspectors to its “suspected” military bases on multiple occasions. The Trump administration, which pressed for stricter monitoring of Iran’s nuclear agreement, had claimed that Iran was defying the terms of the agreement even though it never produced any evidence for these claims.

The confiscated documents that Israel claims to have extracted in Mossad’s intelligence operation from a warehouse in south Tehran expose a secret nuclear weapons programme that violates the 2015 agreement. In a presentation titled “Iran Lied”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a wall of CDs and a cabinet of colour coded binders—both allegedly containing more than 55,000 files each, from Iran’s nuclear archives. Netanyahu said, “Tonight, we are going to reveal new and conclusive proof of the secret nuclear weapons programme that Iran has been hiding for years from the international community in its secret atomic archive.”

President Trump, who was informed about the seized documents in March, responded to Netanyahu's speech by saying “I've been 100 per cent right on Iran nuclear deal”. The US president has threatened to pull out of the JCPOA, when he makes his decision on May 12. Britain, Germany and France have agreed to stay in the deal according to a statement from British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Office on Sunday.

The alleged “new and conclusive proof” that the Israeli government revealed, reportedly, was already known to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The German foreign minister has requested the IAEA to probe into Netanyahu’s allegations.

Former secretary of state John Kerry sought to counter the remarks made by the Israeli prime minister and defend the nuclear deal. In a series of tweets, Kerry who was a chief US diplomat in the negotiations, said, “Every detail PM Netanyahu presented yesterday was every reason the world came together to apply years of sanctions and negotiate the Iran nuclear agreement – because the threat was real and had to be stopped.

“There was no negotiation – and all of that changed with JCPOA. Blow up the deal and you’re back there tomorrow!”

While the reality of the allegations are yet to be assessed and even with a strong backing for the deal from the Obama administration, the Israeli allegations have, undoubtedly, created a drift among the US and its allies at JCPOA.