In the shadow of the stalemate over the nuclear deal: Iran obtained access to confidential reports from the Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nearly 20 years ago, and used them to hide its nuclear program development and evade nuclear testing, the Wall Street Journal reported today (Wednesday). Prime Minister Naftali Bennett: “Exposing the fraud scheme is a wake-up call for the world.”
Iran reportedly obtained access to UN nuclear agency secret reports nearly two decades ago and circulated the documents to senior officials, who used them to prepare cover stories and falsify documentation to hide past nuclear weapons suspects, according to Middle East intelligence sources and documents reviewed. By The Wall Street Journal.
The IAEA documents and accompanying Iranian records in the Persian language reveal some of the tactics Tehran used with the agency, which is tasked with overseeing compliance with nuclear non-proliferation agreements and the later 2015 nuclear deal.
The U.S. and IAEA have said for years that Iran has failed to answer questions about its nuclear work in the past in a cat-and-mouse game that continues to this day and now complicates the revival of the nuclear deal, which lifted most international sanctions on Iran in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities.
Middle East intelligence sources said the IAEA documents, which were marked confidential by the agency, and Iranian records were circulated between 2004 and 2006 by senior Iranian military, government and nuclear program officials.
The fact that the sensitive documents came into Iran’s represents a serious violation of the IAEA’s internal security, “said David Albright, president of the Institute for International Science and Security and a former UN arms inspector. “Iran can formulate answers that will admit what the IAEA already knows, give information that it will probably discover on its own, and at the same time better hide what the IAEA still does not know Iran wants to keep.”
The documents obtained by Iran were among more than 100,000 old documents seized by Israeli intelligence in January 2018 from the nuclear archives in Tehran. Some of the documents include handwritten notes in Persian on IAEA documents and attachments with Iranian commentary. In some of the documents examined, Iranian officials reported on “intelligence methods” for obtaining IAEA reports.
Israel has handed over the nuclear archive to the American intelligence community, according to sources familiar with the matter, and partial access has been given to independent experts, including from the Belfer Center at Harvard University. The Belfer Center concluded in April 2019 that the archive had shown that Iran’s nuclear work was more advanced than previously understood.
The Wall Street Journal reviewed documents from the archive that had not been made public. In one handwritten Persian note attached to an Iranian corporate record, a senior Iranian official pressured Muhsin Fahrizadeh, widely considered the pain of the country’s nuclear weapons program, to come up with a “scenario” that would explain to the IAEA why corporate registration records were replaced. Iranian.
According to Middle East intelligence officials, the change allowed Iran to tell the IAEA that work on the uranium mine, before May 2003, was done by Kimia Delicacy for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, in support of Iran’s determination that the mine is civilian and separate from any military nuclear work. .
It was further reported that a former administration official George W. Bush. Bush, who worked on Iran, said officials in Washington had long suspected that Tehran had sought access to IAEA documents at the time, but there was never any proof. The defense, “the source said.
The IAEA declined to comment on the confidential documents and did not respond to questions regarding security handling. Iranian officials did not respond to requests for comment.
PM Bennett: “Exposing the Fraud Program is Calling the Wake Up to the World”
In response to the publication, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett responded: “The exposure of Iran’s fraudulent program against the International Atomic Energy Agency, based on documents stolen from it by Iran, is a wake-up call. This is further proof of Iranian attempts to advance nuclear weapons. “The theft and concealment of evidence by Iran against the IAEA” has today become a fait accompli in the eyes of the international community. ”
The IAEA is a professional body that serves as the international “gatekeeper” in the field of nuclear weapons. I welcome the insistence of IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi not to close the cases open to this day – as there was a good reason for this. Aside from the scam, the documents attest to a prohibited and ongoing nuclear activity that floods new issues that require investigation. In view of the above, it is time for the IAEA Board of Governors to send a clear message to Iran – so far, “Bennett concluded.