Netanyahu reveals Iran nuclear site, demanding IAEA inspection
NEW YORK — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disclosed on Thursday the existence of a facility in Iran’s capital that he referred to as an “atomic warehouse” full of material related to the country’s nuclear program, and yet undisclosed to the UN’s atomic watchdog agency, in a speech to the UN in New York.
Seeking to pressure the International Atomic Energy Agency to pay attention to Israel’s findings and inspect the new site, Netanyahu declassified details of its contents and warned that Iran was in the process of clearing the facility since he revealed in April a special ops raid of a nearby Iranian nuclear archive facility by Israeli agents.
“The IAEA still has not taken any action. It has not posed a single question of Iran. It has not demanded to inspect a single new site discovered in that secret archive,” the prime minister said. “So I decided to reveal today something else that we revealed to the IAEA and to other intelligence agencies.”
Netanyahu brought photos and maps of the nondescript building, which he described as adjacent to a nearby rug cleaning facility. He claimed that Iranian officials had already removed 15 kilograms of radioactive material from the clandestine structure. “They had to get it out of the site, so they took it out and they spread it around Tehran in an effort to hide the evidence,” he asserted, suggesting that Iranian citizens were at risk of exposure.
And he demanded prompt IAEA inspections of the new facility before the site is completely cleared, mocking their claim that they have access to “anytime, anywhere inspections” under a 2015 nuclear deal brokered between Iran, Germany and the permanent five members of the Security Council. ”
“What Iran hides, Israel will find,” he said. “How about inspections right here, right now?”
While the Israeli premier was thankful to US President Donald Trump for withdrawing the US from the nuclear deal, he made note of one exceptional, unintended consequence: Israel’s natural alignment with the Arab world against Iran, as the Islamic Republic, in his telling, gained power and ambition in the wake of the agreement.
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