International Atomic Energy Agency does not confirm Netanyahu’s accusation of Iran
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said that it “had no credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device after 2009.” The IAEA Board of Directors concluded that the matter has been closed on the basis of a report submitted to it in 2015, according to a statement issued by the IAEA on Tuesday, May 1.
This report was released the day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that his country had new evidence that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons development program that could be renewed at any time. Netanyahu also spoke about Iran’s “secret nuclear archive” from which Israeli security services managed to obtain “tens of thousands of documents” in recent weeks.
The U.S. regards Israel’s statement as credible. According to a senior Israeli representative, the United States agreed that Israel will publish the information about Iran before May 12, when the issue of the U.S. withdrawal from the international nuclear agreement with Tehran will be decided. The representative also mentioned that Netanyahu told Trump about Iran’s “secret nuclear archive” during a meeting in Washington on March 5.
The IAEA did not comment directly on the accusation made by Netanyahu, saying that it “does not publicly discuss issues related to such information,” but added that the IAEA “evaluates all of its security information.”
Earlier, EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Federica Mogherini, spoke about the absence of evidence that Iran has violated the terms of the nuclear agreement. She pointed out that the IAEA has published ten reports since 2015 confirming that Tehran is in compliance with the international treaty on its nuclear program, and the new accusations made by Israel, according to the first reports, do not call into question the fact that Iran has fulfilled its specific obligations.