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May 4, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
The European Union's foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said Netanyahu's latest allegations that Iran once pursued nuclear weapons do not ap- pear to show Iran is currently violating the nuclear agreement that took effect in January 2016. Saying it is "first and foremost" the IAEA that must assess whether Iran is abiding by the deal, she said that that is because "the IAEA is the only impartial, in- ternational organisation that is in charge of moni- toring Iran's nuclear commitments".
BBC News diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus was also less than thrilled by Netanyahu’s stage show, writing: “This was political theatre from the Israeli prime minister, but to what extent was it revelation? Israel's claim to have been able to steal or access files and documents from what it says was the secret Iranian nuclear archive located in a warehouse in south Tehran may be a tale of daring espionage in itself but, beyond that, what is really new?”
The Islamic Republic’s claims that it has never had the ambition to develop a nuclear weapon have of course been widely rejected for many years. For instance, a 2007 US National Intelli- gence Estimate assessed "with high confidence" that Iran did have a nuclear weapons pro- gramme up until 2003 but that Tehran stopped it after it was discovered.
So why did Netanyahu make his claims live on tel- evision precisely when he did? Perhaps because this week may come to be historically viewed as bringing a gear change in the aggressive cam- paign being mounted by the US, Israel and region- al arch-rival of Iran, Saudi Arabia, among others, to diminish Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East. On April 29, new US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and after- wards told a press conference: "[President Trump has] a comprehensive Iran plan that is designed to counter the full array of threats emanating from Tehran... [Washington is] deeply concerned about Iran's dangerous escalation of threats to Israel and the region."
Earlier in the day, Pompeo met with Saudi Arabia's King Salman after flying into Riyadh the previous evening and dining with Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. Speaking at a joint press conference with Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, Pompeo reiterated that Iran "supports proxy mili- tias and terrorist groups". He added: "It is an arms dealer to the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iran con- ducts cyberhacking campaigns. And it supports the murderous Assad regime [in Syria]. Unlike the prior administration we will not neglect the vast scope of Iran's terrorism."
During his joint appearance with Netanyahu, Pompeo also commented: “President Trump’s been pretty clear. This [nuclear] deal is very flawed... He’s directed the administration to try and fix it, and if we can’t fix it, he’s going to with- draw from the deal. It’s pretty straightforward.”
The IAEA, meanwhile, continues to bluntly state the Iranians are in full compliance with the JCPOA. “Iran is subject to the world’s most robust nuclear verification regime,” IAEA chief coordina- tor Cornel Feruta told diplomats on April 23 in Geneva, according to Reuters. The agency cap- tures hundreds of thousands of images daily and analyses millions of sources of open-source data each month, he said.
"Three additional, indispensable subjects" Though as always it is difficult to say with any certainty which road Trump might take, Europe’s efforts to create a supplementary deal that ad- dresses points – which to the US president’s displeasure are not dealt with by JCPOA – appear to be floundering. According to French President Emmanuel Macron there are "three additional, indispensable subjects", namely Tehran's ballistic missile programme, its nuclear activities after 2025 when the current demands of the nuclear deal are relaxed, and "the main regional crises" in the Middle East.
On April 30, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Washington of trying to stoke a “regional crisis” by provoking Saudi Arabia to confront Tehran. “One of the ways to confront Iran is to provoke inexperienced rulers of the region,”