Benjamin Netanyahu made a similarly splashy accusation in May. Photo / AP
Benjamin Netanyahu made a similarly splashy accusation in May. Photo / AP
Clandestine nuclear dumping. Concealing atomic material near a rug-cleaning plant. Lying to international partners.
Accusing Iran of all of the above, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu fired a new salvo yesterday in his campaign to prove that Tehran can't be trusted and poses a massive threat to international security.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded by calling Netanyahu a "liar who would not stop lying".
Netanyahu's presentation at the United Nations General Assembly - brandishing props and exhibiting his trademark showmanship - marked the latest in a run of revelations or accusations about Iran's nuclear programme, as he ratchets up his campaign against the 2015 global accord that's meant to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
He challenged UN nuclear inspectors to examine a new "secret atomic warehouse" near Tehran - but it's unclear whether the announcement sheds new light on what inspectors already knew, or proves that Iran is violating the 2015 deal.
The warehouse announcement showcased Netanyahu's unyielding views on Iran and anger at Europeans he accuses of appeasing Israel's enemies.
Showing a map and photo of the site on oversize boards, he said Iran concealed "massive amounts of equipment and material" in a facility near a rug-cleaning plant in the Turquzabad district. He said Iranian officials cleared out some radioactive material in recent weeks and secretly released it around Tehran.
"You have to ask yourself a question: Why did Iran keep a secret atomic archive and a secret atomic warehouse?" he asked. "What Iran hides, Israel will find."
He said Israel shared the information with the United Nations' atomic watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, and urged the IAEA to inspect the site. He suggested the agency wasn't doing enough to press Iran on Israeli revelations, appearing to cast doubts on the agency's credibility.
The IAEA had no immediate comment.
Iranian state television called the announcement "ridiculous", and Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported Netanyahu's remarks with barely disguised disdain, saying he "annually launches a ridiculous show at the UN General Assembly".
At the end of the day's speeches at the General Assembly, Iran used its "right of reply" to rebut Netanyahu's accusations.
"His fallacies and his statement confirm his pathological tendency to tell monstrous lies and distort reality," said a representative of the Iranian delegation. "Exhibiting some photographs of Google Street View, today the Israeli showman claimed that he discovered new nuclear facilities in Iran. This is yet another false story."
Zarif, meanwhile, tweeted that Israel was the only one with an "undeclared" nuclear weapons programme.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani defended the 2015 deal at the United Nations earlier this week, and upon return home, he said most other countries either directly or indirectly backed the accord, reached by Iran, the United States and five other major powers.
President Donald Trump has pulled the US out of the deal.
Netanyahu made a similarly splashy accusation in May, saying Israeli agents spirited away a "half ton" of documents regarding Iran's nuclear programme from a facility in Tehran's Shourabad neighbourhood. Iran hasn't acknowledged the alleged seizure.
In 2012, Netanyahu famously held up a cartoon of a bomb at the UN while discussing Iran's nuclear programme.
Netanyahu yesterday did not say what the material was, and it was unclear whether his presentation provided any evidence that Iran had violated the 2015 nuclear deal.
That agreement came after years of Western sanctions over the country's contested atomic program. The deal saw Iran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of crushing economic sanctions.
Iran long has denied seeking atomic weapons.
Israel, which considers Iran to be its biggest threat, has sought repeatedly to undercut the 2015 nuclear deal despite the UN repeatedly confirming Iran abides by its terms.
Netanyahu urged European signatories to join Trump in abandoning the deal and halting trade with Iran.
