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.

But he offered searing criticism of the European Union, which this week revealed a special mechanism it is designing to help its business circumvent renewed US sanctions on companies engaged in the Iranian marketplace.

“I just used a strong word: Appeasement,” Netanyahu said. “Unfortunately, that’s exactly what we’re seeing again in Europe.”

“Have these European leaders learned nothing from history?” he asked. “Will they ever wake up?”

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, Israel’s ambassador to the UN previewed Netanyahu’s speech, explaining that the premier “views the information that was captured in Tehran as critical.”

Both he and Netanyahu praised the Trump administration, and in particular US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, for their consistent defense of Israel throughout the UN, and for their aggressive approach to an increasingly aggressive Iran.

“We used to be the only one in the room speaking about this issue, and here you have the president of the United States representing it on the floor,” Danon said, explaining of their new Iran strategy: “I think the end goal should be that the Iranians understand they cannot continue with their ballistic missile test, acquiring a ballistic missile capabilities. The result will be a better agreement.”

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