|
Trending Topics
|
Source: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/secret-files-prove-iran-is-trying-to-build-bomb-02qxs8mpc
Secret Files Prove Iran Is Trying to Build Bomb, Israel Says
(The Times-UK) David Charter and Roger Boyes - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on the IAEA, the nuclear monitoring body, to investigate his claims to have discovered proof of Iran's efforts to build a nuclear weapon. In meetings with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany this week, Netanyahu will make the case that the Iran nuclear accord was essentially invalid since it was based on a falsehood: Iran's contention that it had never pursued a nuclear weapons program. "What Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency about its capacities was almost comical compared to what we have here" in the Iranian nuclear archive snatched by Israeli agents in January, said a senior Israeli intelligence officer. "Iran said there had only been feasibility and scientific studies, but what we see is that Iran ran a fully fledged nuclear weapons program and that it followed directions from the political levels." A memorandum shown to The Times - from the Iranian atomic energy authority to the defense ministry - authorizes the military to take over the task of enriching uranium by centrifuges from 3% to more than 90%, a level of enrichment that suggests an intention to create a weapon. David Albright, a former nuclear inspector in Iraq, told The Times that the Israelis were right to criticize the failings of Tehran to acknowledge its past nuclear weapons work and to permit inspectors to monitor facilities. "The IAEA has done that in both South Africa and Taiwan, after they ended their nuclear weapons programs," he said. After talks in Berlin with Angela Merkel on Monday, Netanyahu also warned: "Iran, which is Shia, wants to conduct a military campaign in Syria which is largely Sunni....This will inflame another religious war and the consequences would be many, many more refugees and you know exactly where they will come."