Bennett: ‘Iran is lying to the world again right now’
Ahead of the backdrop of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) pending report on Iran’s nuclear development, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett again accused the Islamic Republic of lying and referred to the “mendacious remarks” made by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett Credit: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO.
The minister said that Israel was spreading lies about his country and that Iran has “intelligence that the Zionist regime has taken the foreign policy of the US hostage.”
“Spreading lies? Come on. I’m holding right here the proof of your lies in my hands. You see, after Iran stole classified documents from the UN’s Atomic Agency, Iran used that information to figure out what the Atomic Agency was hoping to find, and then created cover stories and hid evidence to evade their nuclear probes,” Bennett said in response on Tuesday.
“How do we know this? Because we got our hands on Iran’s deception plan a few years back. And it’s right here in my hands,” he said, holding up the documents.
In April 2018, Israel exposed Iran’s secret nuclear weapons program called Project Amad, and its nuclear archive, a trove of more than 100,000 documents obtained by the Mossad, which revealed that Iran was developing five nuclear warheads as early as 2003. Bennett was possibly using documents from this cache.
“Here it is, in the Persian language, hundreds of pages marked with the stamp of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. There are even some handwritten notes on the documents by senior Iranian officials — like this one, written by then-defence minister to Fakhrizadeh,” Bennett noted.
Bennett quoted his text: “‘Sooner or later they (referring to the Atomic Agency) will ask us — and we’ll need to have a comprehensive cover story for them.’”
“See, he’s talking about a cover story. And here’s that cover story. Iran lied to the world, Iran is lying to the world again right now, and the world must make sure that Iran doesn’t get away scot-free,” Bennett demanded.
A soon-to-be-published IAEA report will reportedly state that Iran is close to the amount of uranium sufficient to build a nuclear bomb and is evading questions on the issue.
Reports indicate that the IAEA will say that Iran has 43.1 kg of 60% enriched uranium, which can be turned into 25kg of 90% enriched uranium within a few weeks, apparently enough for a nuclear warhead.
Minister of Defense Benny Gantz warned earlier this month of the significant progress Iran is making in its nuclear program, saying that “Iran continues to accumulate irreversible knowledge and experience in the development, research, production and operation of advanced centrifuges. It stands just a few weeks away from accumulating fissile material that will be sufficient for a first bomb, holds 60 kg of enriched material at 60%, produces metallic uranium at the enrichment level of 20% and prevents the IAEA from accessing its facilities.”
Gantz last updated in April that Iran has 40 kg of enriched material at 60%, meaning it has enlarged its stockpile by 30% in just a month’s time.
Iran is creating weapons-grade materials by enriching uranium at 60%. Only countries developing bombs reach this high level. There is no civilian use for uranium enriched to 60%. Uranium enriched to 60% can quickly be enriched further to 90%, the level required to build an atomic bomb.
