ANALYSIS: The World Has It All Wrong on Iran and Netanyahu

Much has already been said and written about Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s dramatic revelations regarding Iran’s nuclear weapons program on Monday evening.

Israeli and international media coverage focused mainly on the question of whether there were previously unknown aspects or even a ‘smoking gun’ in Netanyahu’s presentation at the headquarters of the IDF in Tel Aviv.

Proponents of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (JCPOA) said there was nothing new here and suggested that the Israeli PM tried to influence President Trump’s upcoming decision about continuing US participation in the JCPOA.

Others like EU Foreign Policy Chief Frederica Mogherini pointed out that Netanyahu had not presented evidence that Iran had been cheating on its nuclear program since the JCPOA was implemented.

They got it all wrong.

First of all, the CIA and the White House knew already at the beginning of 2018 about the massive Mossad operation in Iran and the seizure of roughly 11,000 documents detailing Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program.

On March 5th this year, Netanyahu briefed Trump and other US officials on the details of the intelligence a Mossad team of 100 agents stole from a warehouse in Tehran, which has been under the scrutiny of Israeli intelligence since January 2016.

Trump’s new Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was one of the first American politicians to expose the existence of secret side-deals that allowed Iran to continue work on elements of its nuclear weapons program despite the JCPOA.

Trump, furthermore, indicated long before the Mossad seized the thousands of secret Iranian documents and CD’s that he had contemplated scuttling American participation in the JCPOA, which he called one of the worst deals he had ever seen.

Since Netanyahu’s revelations about the Mossad operation in Iran coincided with a new massive Israeli strike at Iranian bases in Syria it is therefore fair to assume he sent a clear message to the Mullahs in Tehran: Israel knows exactly what you are doing and what you’re planning to do.

As for the proponents of the JCPOA who said the Mossad files apparently do not contain ‘a smoking gun’ or other relevant new information on Iran’s covert nuclear weapons program, Israeli officials confirmed the documents do contain new information about the military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program.

An unnamed Israeli official said “the documents tell us more than the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) knew until today about the Iranian nuclear program.”

Netanyahu, furthermore, revealed the documents show Iran had already selected five sites in the Islamic Republic where underground nuclear tests would be conducted in the future.

Then there is Mogherini’s claim Iran complied with the JCPOA since its implementation and Netanyahu didn’t present evidence which proved the opposite.

One doesn’t need the secret files or Netanyahu to prove Iran is cheating on the JCPOA and is actively working to continue its nuclear weapons program.

As I pointed out in an article dealing with Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA in April 2017, the Iranians themselves admitted they are cheating on the deal.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Agency, told IRINN TV that Iran never poured cement into the core of the plutonium reactor in Arak, as was required under the JCPOA.

Salehi said cement was only poured into the reactor’s pipelines which could be quickly replaced.

The same Iranian official earlier bragged his country can return to its pre-deal uranium enrichment level of twenty percent in only five days.

German intelligence, furthermore, revealed last year that Iran continued its efforts to obtain technology and know-how to advance its nuclear weapons and missile programs, and had tried to acquire materials such as special valves for its heavy water reactor in Arak since the implementation of the nuclear deal.