Netanyahu: Iran Hiding its Nuclear Intentions

Netanyahu responds to IAEA report which says the agency has made little progress in its attempts to probe Iran’s nuclear program.

INN

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Iran is hiding its intentions to produce nuclear weapons from the world.

Netanyahu’s comments came in response to a new report by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which says it has made little progress in its attempts to probe allegations that Iran worked on nuclear arms.

“The IAEA report again notes that Iran is refusing to reveal to the world its preparations for the production of nuclear weapons. Iran insists on hiding this from the international community at a time when the major powers are continuing to try and allow Iran to produce the core of such weapons, enriched uranium. These do not go together,” he said.

“The major powers do not need to court Iran to agree to accept the possibility of producing nuclear weapons even as the latter refuses to divulge the details of the preparations for its nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu added.

Iran agreed a year ago to work with the IAEA as part of an interim deal reached with the West. But – like previous probes – the investigation quickly stalled over Tehran insistence that it never wanted or worked on such weapons, the report noted.

The IAEA already indicated back in November that Iran is refusing to answer questions on the military aspects of its program.

Also in November, Iran said it was ready to allow nuclear inspectorsaccess to its Marivan military site, a facility long suspected of being used to develop explosive weapons.

As well as Marivan, IAEA inspectors are also interested in the Parchin military base, where they suspect tests that could be applied to a potential nuclear site have been carried out.

Iran, however, has so far denied access to Parchin.