By the Gazette Editorial Board IN an attempt to influence the world against the nuclear deal with Iran, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has presented what he claimed to be clear evidence of Iran's violation of the 2015 deal. During a televised press conference in Tel Aviv on Monday, Netanyahu, who is known for theatrical presentations, claimed that Tehran "continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons programme for future use even after signing the 2015 deal." "Tonight I'm here to tell you one thing: Iran lied. Iran lied about never having a nuclear weapons programme," he said. "One hundred thousand secret files prove it did. Secondly, even after the deal, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons knowledge for future use." The 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Programme of Action (JCPOA) was signed between Iran and some six major world powers to limit Iran's nuclear programme in return for relief from US and other economic sanctions. The Netanyahu show came less than two weeks before the deadline President Trump gave to his European allies to verify it or announce US withdrawal from it. Some nuclear experts and foreign diplomats including some Americans and Israelis affirmed that most of the documents highlighted by Netanyahu were not new and had previously been seen by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as early as 2005 and made public by the agency in 2011. The IAEA judged that substantial work on nuclear weapon development ceased in 2003, and that there was no evidence of weapon research after 2009. The White House, however, responded positively to Netanyahu's claims saying that this information provided new and compelling details about Iran's efforts to develop missile-deliverable nuclear weapons. "These facts are consistent with what the United States has long known: Iran has a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons programme that it has tried and failed to hide from the world and from its own people," the White House said in a statement. The new US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said the documents showed that Iran lied about its pursuit of nuclear weapons and that its deception undercuts the international nuclear deal it signed in 2015. Iran, which denied Netanyahu's allegations, has also warned that it will not commit to the 2015 deal if the US didn't lift the sanctions imposed on it. Iran's Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has said that if the US pulls out of the nuclear deal, Tehran would be "highly unlikely" to remain inside it and the consequences "will not be very pleasant for the United States". Apparently, Netanyahu's presentation does not offer something new to foster previous world doubts over Iran's intention to develop nuclear weapons, the reason why the global powers, including the US, negotiated the deal with Iran in 2015. And the absence of clear evidence of Iran's violation of the deal till now has prevented Trump from taking the decision to cancel it . Apparently Trump, who has expressed readiness to hold a summit with nuclear North Korea to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, was in need of evidence – truthful or fabricated, no matter – to prove Iran's violation of the deal in order to walk away from it. And now he has got it.
