Israel will stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, declares Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the UN General Assembly. Iran must face a serious nuclear threat.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that
Iran was
secretly working on nuclear weapons but that it destroyed a covert site after
Israel learned of it.
The statement from the Israeli leader was swiftly denied by
Iran.
According to Netanyahu, Tehran had been working on nuclear
weapons at a facility in Abadeh, south of the Iranian city of Isfahan.
After openly accusing Iran of attempting to develop a bomb
last year and citing a cache of Iranian documents purportedly seized by Israeli
spies from an Iranian warehouse, it was the first time the prime minister
publicly identified the place.
"In this site, Iran conducted experiments to develop
nuclear weapons," Netanyahu claimed, adding that "they destroyed the
site" after Israeli intelligence learned of it. They simply eliminated it.
The prime minister made no more comments about the claimed
trials or stated when they allegedly took place.
He continued, "Israel knows what you're doing, Israel
knows when you're doing it, and Israel knows where you're doing it." He
was speaking to Iranian officials.
Plutonium
Atoms
He made the charge as the UN's International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) allegedly discovered uranium traces at a location that Iran has
not yet explained.
The UN nuclear watchdog informed Iran on Monday that it had no
time to spend in responding to its inquiries, among which, according to
diplomats, was how uranium traces were discovered at the site but were not
reported to the agency.
According to diplomats, the uranium fragments wound up at what
Tehran claimed to be a facility for cleaning carpets.
In its newest nuclear move, Iran has turned on sophisticated
centrifuges.
A week before Israel's general election, in which Netanyahu is
in a tight battle to win another term, Netanyahu, who vehemently opposed a 2015
nuclear deal between Iran and international powers, made the comments in a
broadcast speech.
The site was initially mentioned by the prime minister last
year, who referred to it as a "secret atomic warehouse" and claimed
it once stored radioactive material that has since been evacuated.
Netanyahu urged the world community to wake up and realize
that Iran routinely lies."Escalated pressure remains the primary approach
to thwart Iran's nuclear aspirations and restrain its regional
belligerence."
Iran dismissed Netanyahu's claim on Monday, claiming that he
was looking for an excuse to start a conflict.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted, "The
possessor of real nukes cries wolf," alluding to Israel's conceivably own
nuclear weapons.
Improving
Uranium
The IAEA said that Iran was beginning to carry out its threat
last week to break the historic 2015 agreement once again, this time by
installing more sophisticated centrifuges and advancing toward using them to
enrich uranium, which is prohibited by the agreement.
IAEA inspection details are private, and the organization
often doesn't remark on them. But in discussions in Tehran on Sunday, the
IAEA's acting director made it clear that he was pressuring Iran to increase
cooperation with the UN non-proliferation agency.
"Time is of the essence," Cornel Feruta said at a
press conference. His discussions with officials, including Iran's foreign
minister and its nuclear energy leader, "I think that was a message very
well understood," he added.
US sanctions against Iran are being stepped up.
Although it has only provided a general overview of the
situation because it is confidential, the IAEA has informed member nations that
Iran has two months to respond to its queries.
The Vienna-based IAEA has not yet raised the alarm, however,
as these inquiries are a necessary part of a laborious procedure that
frequently takes several months.
Without going into detail, Feruta stated, "We are quite,
let's say rigorous, careful, and we are committed to our mandate.
Iran has been gradually violating the restrictions it placed
on its atomic activity in reaction to the punitive US sanctions imposed after
Washington withdrew from the nuclear agreement in May of last year.
China, which joined France, Germany, Britain, and Russia in
signing the nuclear agreement, urged the US to "give up its wrong
approach, such as unilateral sanctions and extreme pressure against Iran."
Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, told
reporters in Beijing that "all parties to the agreement should also commit
themselves to the [deal's] full and effective implementation."
Hua further expressed optimism, stating, 'Our aspiration is
for all involved parties to find common ground and collaborate in deescalating
the tensions surrounding the Iranian nuclear matter.
"Reckless
Policies"
On Monday, the UN envoy for Iran accused the US of breaking
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty by modernizing its nuclear arsenal rather
than taking steps toward disarmament.
However, "unfortunately, there are two alarming races:
new nuclear arms race and nuclear arms modernization race," said
Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi, citing progress toward a global ban on nuclear
explosions and the more general goal of nuclear disarmament.
During the UN General Assembly's commemoration of the
International Day Against Nuclear Tests on Monday, he emphasized,
"Policies deemed as irresponsible, such as those pursued by the United
States, undermine global endeavors for nuclear disarmament and
non-proliferation, and should be brought to a halt.
