IAEA Chief Refutes Netanyahu’s Big Lies on Iran
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
Last May, in response to numerous times Netanyahu falsely accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, notably his latest Big Lie at that time, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi slammed him strongly, saying:
He’s a “broke and infamous liar who has had nothing to offer except lies and deceits,” adding:
“Netanyahu and the notorious, child-killing Zionist regime must have reached the basic understanding that the people of the world have enough awareness and cognizance.”
He long ago lost credibility. Many Israelis despise him, venting their anger in occasional large-scale street protests against him remaining prime minister.
His shameful accusations against Iran are never supported by credible evidence because there is none.
Its legitimate nuclear program has no nuclear component. It’s combatting terrorism, not supporting or proliferating it.
It neither threatens or attacks other nations like Washington, NATO and Israel do repeatedly.
Qassemi called Israel an “illegal regime…using battered charlatanism of the ignorance age, (mindless) of world public opinion.”
In response to Netanyahu’s false claim about a “secret atomic warehouse” in his UN General Assembly address, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano refuted the accusation, saying:
“The agency sends inspectors to sites and locations only when needed. The agency uses all safeguards relevant to information available to it but it does not take (so-called intelligence) at face value.”
Without mentioning Israel or Netanyahu by name, Amano added that “(a)ll information obtained, including from third parties, is subject to rigorous review and assessed together with other available information to arrive at an independent assessment based on the agency’s own expertise.”
“In order to maintain credibility, the agency’s independence in relation to the implementation of verification activities is of paramount importance.”
Since Security Council Resolution 2231 made the JCPOA nuclear deal binding international (and US constitutional law under its Supremacy Clause), Washington alone breached it - straightaway by Obama, notably by Trump’s unlawful pullout.
The IAEA affirmed Iran’s full compliance with JCPOA provisions 12 consecutive times. No nation is more intensively monitored, none more scrupulously in compliance with Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) provisions and its other nuclear obligations.
US use of radiological material in war theaters, along with deploying nukes in Europe and elsewhere flagrantly violate NPT’s letter and spirit.
Moscow slammed its “joint nuclear missions” with NATO imperial allies, saying “this is a direct violation of (NPT) Articles I and II…”
It expressly prohibits transfer of nuclear weapons from one nation to another.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Turkey currently host 150 US nukes at six bases.
B61 nukes are the Pentagon’s oldest in its arsenal, in 2020 to be replaced by B61-12 bombs, costing over $10 billion, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Cost Estimating and Program Evaluation.
Moscow’s complaint to Washington about illegally deploying nukes was ignored.
The Trump regime plans an unprecedented nuclear upgrade - unjustifiably justified by a “Russian threat (and) troubling” behavior that doesn’t exist.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned that US behavior “significantly lowers the threshold (for) use of nuclear weapons,” adding:
The “baseless allegations of a growing ‘Russian nuclear threat,’ peddled by Americans, look particularly cynical.”
“The provisions of our military doctrine concerning the use of nuclear weapons are deliberately distorted.”
“The western public is being continuously told that Russia appears to review its stance on the place and the role of the nuclear weapons and focuses more and more on that. This does not correspond to the reality.”
Trump reportedly wants America’s nuclear arsenal increased 10-fold. US nuclear policy under Bush/Cheney, Obama, and Trump assert America’s preemptive right to unilaterally declare and wage future wars using first strike nuclear weapons.
Nuclear armed and dangerous Israel likely has a similar unstated policy.
Iran deplores these weapons, wants them all eliminated. As long as they exist, using them eventually remains an ominous possibility.
VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
