Global geopolitical Series: Washington throws weight behind Netanyahu’s Iran claim

On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu triggered a geopolitical stir across the world by accusing Iran of lying about its nuclear research program. Citing evidence from a trove of files that the Israeli intelligence allegedly managed to obtain from Tehran’s nuclear research archive and with the help of presentation slides, the Israeli PM claimed that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapons program when it brokered the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the international community.

While Iran ridiculed the claim and many European countries confronted Netanyahu saying that his accusation contradicts with the findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Washington has thrown its weight behind the Prime Minister’s claim. White House released a statement saying, “The United States is aware of the information just released by Israel and continues to examine it carefully. This information provides 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 had a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program that it has tried and failed to hide from the world and from its own people. The Iranian regime has shown it will use destructive weapons against its neighbors and others. Iran must never have nuclear weapons.”

President Trump has also weighed in on the issue during his joint press conference when asked about Iran deal saying, “In seven years, that deal will have expired and Iran is free to go ahead and create nuclear weapons. That is not acceptable. Seven years is tomorrow, that’s not acceptable”. Weighing on the Israeli Prime Minister’s presentation, President Trump said that it proves that he is 100 percent right about the 2015 agreement, adding, “This will, I think, spell out the scope and scale of the program that they undertook there, and I think that it makes clear that at the very least the Iranians have continued to lie to their own people…….The Iranians have consistently taken the position that they've never had a program like this. This will belie any notion that there wasn't a program."