The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nuclear allegations against Iran as a “worthless show”.
In an elaborate televised presentation that included props, video and slides, Netanyahu accused Iran on Monday of lying about its nuclear ambitions, but he did not provide evidence that Iran had actively worked to obtain an atomic weapon since the 2015 agreement between Teheran and six world powers, Agence France-Presse reported.
Iran has always denied it sought a nuclear weapon, insisting its atomic program was for civilian purposes.
Baharm Qasemi, the foreign ministry spokesman of Iran, said in a statement that the “ridiculous propagandist presentations” of Netanyahu are “one of the latest shameful and worthless shows about Iran’s nuclear program,” Xinhua News Agency reported.
The Iranian nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed between Iran and six world powers – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States – in 2015, was designed to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the removal of sanctions.
“Even after the deal, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons know-how for future use” at the Fordow nuclear testing site, said Netanyahu.
However, Qasemi said the allegations were “merely aimed at spreading lies and deception”.
The United Nations atomic watchdog declined on Tuesday to directly address Netanyahu’s accusations.
However, it repeated it had “no credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device after 2009”, citing assessments from 2015.
A spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that its board had “declared that its consideration of this issue was closed” after it was presented with a report in 2015.
Most of the purported evidence Netanyahu presented dated to the period before the 2015 accord was signed, although he said Iran had continued adding to its “nuclear weapons knowledge”.
Asked whether the information indicated a violation of the Iran nuclear agreement, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “I’ll leave that to lawyers. The president will ultimately have to make a determination about that too.”
After Netanyahu spoke, Trump repeated his criticism of the deal, suggesting he backed the Israeli leader’s remarks.
