Tehran’s response to the Netanyahu speech shows that it wants to change the conversation from what the documents show to criticizing the prime minister.
By JPOST EDITORIALUpdated: MAY 1, 2018 20:40Max Saatchi stands with other protesters while wearing a mask depicting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during a "No to Rouhani, Yes to Human Rights in Iran Rally" organized by the National Council of Resistance to Iran, outside the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, New York, September 28, (photo credit: DARREN ORNITZ / REUTERS)
Iran has been deceiving the international community about its nuclear weapons program. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might have used an overly theatrical approach in documenting this fact on Monday night, but that shouldn’t take away from the realities revealed about Project Amad, as established by documents pilfered from Iran’s nuclear archive.“We can now prove that Project Amad was a comprehensive program to design, build and test nuclear weapons. We can also prove that Iran is secretly storing Project Amad material to use at a time of its choice to develop nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said during his televised address and PowerPoint presentation in English, which was directed at the international community, and timed for mere days before President Donald Trump must decide whether to continue US participation in the nuclear deal with Tehran.In a daring and extraordinary feat of intelligence gathering, Israel was able to take out of Iran some 55,000 pages and 183 CDs, which according to Netanyahu include incriminating documents, charts, presentations, blueprints, photos and videos.The ability to take out of Iran these highly secret documents proves once again that Israel is one of the foremost nations in the world when it comes to clandestine missions abroad. It is one of the reasons that Israel is a key ally of the United States and other Western states in shedding light on the underhanded dealings of countries such as Iran, which seek to use the veneer of respectability to exploit the well-meaning desire for peace of others.The documents lay waste to the longstanding claims by Iranian officials like Foreign Minister Javad Zarif that his country is not building nuclear weapons. He has said it was never the policy of the Islamic Republic to have nuclear weapons. During the run-up to the Iran deal in 2015, and ever since, Tehran continued to lie about its nuclear program.Of course, in response to Netanyahu’s revelations, Iran went on the attack, calling Israel’s claims “worn out and shameful.”Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Netanyahu is a “broke and infamous liar who has had nothing to offer except lies and deceits.”Tehran’s response to the Netanyahu speech shows that it wants to change the conversation from what the documents show to criticizing the prime minister, who Iran’s leaders know is not popular in Europe. Iran seeks to pretend to be a moderate regime working with the international community. It talks about international law and peace in Syria. At the same time, Iranian- backed militias are setting down roots in Syria.Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon recently said there are up to 80,000 Shi’ite militiamen trained by Iran in Syria. They are there to support the Assad regime, which has used chemical weapons on its own civilians.Iran’s nuclear weapons program is part of its larger strategic drive for regional hegemony.
In Iraq, the ayatollahs have also watched as the seeds of Shi’ite militias they planted in the 1980s have grown up to now dominate the Interior Ministry in Baghdad, cementing militia influence on the centers of power.In Lebanon, Iran has Hezbollah, which is running openly and armed in the election scheduled for this coming Sunday.In Yemen, the Houthi rebels use Iranian know-how to equip ballistic missiles they fire at Riyadh.In the Gaza Strip, Iran seeks to empower Hamas, and in the Gulf, Iran wants to pull Qatar away from the West.Iran is seeking to control the region at the point of a gun, while talking about peace.What Netanyahu showed is that the regime in Tehran has never had peaceful intentions; it has always been working toward nuclear weapons. Sometimes that work is put on hold while Iran arms its militias, but always it is waiting in the vault, poised to reemerge.Israel has now shed a light inside that vault. There are those that say it is irrefutable evidence that the nuclear deal must be “fixed or nixed,” while others say that it only provides more reason to keep the deal intact in order to keep a closer watch on the Iranian regime.It is up to Trump to decide next week what to do with this information.
