Iran rejects Netanyahu's claims of 'secret nuclear warehouse'
On Thursday, October 25, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman denied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statements regarding the existence of a secret nuclear depot in Turqoozabad, near Tehran, as "a show."
The Iranian Foreign Minister has also said that Israel is the only country with a secret and undeclared nuclear weapons program in the Middle East.
Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on his Twitter account Friday morning that Israel, with "no art or cunning, can ever keep the fact in obscurity" that it is the only country in the region that has a "secret" and "undeclared" nuclear weapons program, including a real arsenal of nuclear weapons.
The Iranian Foreign Minister added: "It is time for Israel to admit and open the doors of its illegal nuclear weapons program to international inspectors."
Bahram Qassemi, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, also referred to the Israeli Prime Minister's remarks at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday and said: "This is a new show and spectacle" by Israeli officials, which "although it is not worth paying attention to; we strongly deny and reject it."
Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly that Iran has a secret nuclear facility "for storing a large amount of equipment and (nuclear) materials from Iran's secret nuclear program" in "Torqozabad" in an alley called "Maher" on the outskirts of Tehran.
The Israeli prime minister said: “Iran is making a strong effort to evacuate this secret site and disperse its equipment and facilities to other locations.” He attributed this to Israel’s action last year in obtaining Iranian nuclear documents in Shorabad.
This is while Bahram Ghasemi, rejecting these statements by Benjamin Netanyahu, said: "The only authority dealing with nuclear issues is the International Atomic Energy Agency, which pursues its constant monitoring and verification and has so far confirmed Iran's commitment to everything it accepted responsibility for in the JCPOA with 12 reports, which is emphasized and confirmed by the international community and all relevant authorities and other members of the JCPOA."
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman called the Israeli prime minister's statements "false, ill-considered, and meaningless statements and fake shows" that the world will only laugh at "out loud."
Meanwhile, a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters on Thursday: "The United States is aware of the facility that Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about. It is a warehouse used to store nuclear documents and archives."
A US intelligence official also told Reuters: "Benjamin Netanyahu's statements could be somewhat misleading. We have known about this facility for some time, and it is filled with filing cabinets, not centrifuge tubes."
This comes as the Israeli Prime Minister says he has shared the existence of this secret warehouse with some leaders as well as with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Benjamin Netanyahu also said: "Since we raided the (Iranian) nuclear archive, they have been cleaning up this nuclear warehouse. In the last month alone, they moved 15 kilograms of radioactive material. Do you know what they did with it? They took this material and spread it around Tehran to destroy the evidence."
The Israeli prime minister also stated that Yukiya Amano, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is a "good man" but that he has given him a "message" to take action on this matter and "send the agency's inspectors there for an inspection before Iran cleans up this warehouse and "tell the truth about Iran."
On May 1, Benjamin Netanyahu announced what he called access to an archive of "documents and evidence" of Iran's secret nuclear development.
He said that Israel had seized "more than half a ton of evidence," including 55,000 documents on 183 CDs, from Iran's secret nuclear research.
The Israeli Prime Minister told reporters in New York on October 25: "The greatest threat to Israel is not from Syria; it is not from Lebanon; it is not even from Iran's presence in Syria or from Iran's actions within its own country; rather, the Islamic Republic's ambition to obtain nuclear weapons is the number one worrying threat to Israel."
US President Donald Trump, as well as a number of his administration officials, including Mike Pompeo, have emphasized that the United States will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Source: Radio Farda
