What Netanyahu proved

What did Netanyahu actually prove in his video and power point demonstration - and to whom did he aim his presentation?

Jeff Dunetz, | updated: 07:30

OpEds Mike Pompeo with Binyamin Netanyahu
Mike Pompeo with Binyamin Netanyahu

Using information secretly gathered from Iran and verified by the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu exposed a major lie in the information the Iranians supplied to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). That data was a requirement before implementing the JCPOA. In other words, the entire agreement was based on a lie and should never have been implemented.

The PM revealed a cache of files that prove Tehran ran a secret program to build nuclear weapons. Iranian leaders have long said their nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. But Netanyahu revealed tens of thousands of pages of documents, which he said were copied from a “highly secret location” in Iran.

Netanyahu Proves Iran Lied About Nuclear Program (With Video & Bibi’s Power Point)

What Netanyahu said and what he did not say

Netanyahu said the information — which was obtained within sometime in February — shows Iran is “brazenly lying” about its nuclear weapons program and moved all of its nuclear files and designs to a secret location, proving the country is not complying with that key provision of the nuclear deal.

Netanyahu revealed that Israeli intelligence secured a half ton cache of files, fifty-five thousand pages and another 55,000 files on 183 CDs, from that secret storage building in Tehran.

Fessing up about their pre-deal nuclear program was a condition for the implementation of the deal. It is one of the examples of non-compliance mentioned in an earlier post. The IAEA was to produce a report about Iran’s pre-deal nuclear program by the end of 2015.

According to that IAEA report, Iran said that it never had a nuclear weapons program. They specifically denied the existence of the Amad program.

The five principle goals of the Amad program were “designing nuclear weapons, developing nuclear cores, building nuclear implosion systems, preparing nuclear tests and integrating nuclear warheads on missiles.”

After 2003, Iran officially shut down Project Amad but carried on its work secretly using the same personnel. The person who ran the Amad program, Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh is now running a clandestine program “Special activities” whose work is carried out by SPND an organization inside Iran’s Defense Ministry. Many of SPND’s key personnel worked under Fakhrizadeh on Project Amad.

While it certainly seems that way, it is important to note that the Prime Minister did not offer conclusive proof that the SPND was working on a nuclear bomb

What he did prove is that Iran lied to the IAEA about their pre-deal program. Per the JCPOA, the agreement was not to be implemented without that information. But Iran’s lies mean the entire deal is based on falsehood and never should have been implemented

That storage building of files where Israeli intelligence took the information proves that after the deal was made, “Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear know-how for use at a later date.” But the JCPOA states, “Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons,” so to be compliant they should have gotten rid of the files. But it seems that Iran is keeping the information for a rainy day.

To whom was Netanyahu  speaking?

Netanyahu ended his presentation with, “In a few days’ time, President Trump will make his decision on what to do with the nuclear deal. I am sure he will do the right thing, the right thing for the United States, the right thing for Israel, and the right thing for peace in the world.”

Many have said that Bibi’s speech was directed at one person, President Trump–according to my sources in Jerusalem, this is not true.  The speech was directed at the American people to provide cover to the president, who Netanyahu believes will pull out of the Iran deal on May 12 (they were quick to point out that the PM hasn’t been told by Trump what he has decided).

The speech was also directed at Iran whose military sites in Syria were bombed on Sunday (possibly by Israel but I could not get a confirmation or denial).  According to the source, Netanyahu’s calculation was that the public embarrassment of having a half ton of files snuck out of their capital city right under their noses, proof that they broke the essence of what the deal was based on, leading new pressure about its nuke program from the U.S. and possibly other’s in the international community, would deter a retaliatory strike by the rogue regime which has the possibility of  spiraling into a larger war. As confirmation of my source’s details, I was told The NY Times was leaked something similar.

Like the Prime Minister, I believe the President will do the right thing, however, his belief about what is the right thing may be different than Netanyahu’s.  What is certain is that his decision will not be influenced by a hatred of the Jewish State as was the original deal influenced by the hatred of Trump’s predecessor.

Note for more about Iran’s violations of the nuclear deal click here.

Below is a video of the entire speech.

Netanyahu Speech