Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s display of “Iran’s secret nuclear files” demonstrates the need for the international nuclear deal that took force in 2015, according to French officials.
“The relevance of this agreement is heightened by the information Israel has presented,” a spokesperson for the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.
Netanyahu unveiled a cache of documents stolen from Tehran, an “atomic archive” that demonstrated their work to develop a military nuclear weapons program, particularly in the years prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Netanyahu offered the trove to buttress the case for scrapping the deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but France maintained that he proved the necessity of the pact, which allows the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the regime’s activities.
“[A]ll activities linked to the development of a nuclear weapon are permanently banned by the agreement; as for the IAEA inspection regime established by virtue of the agreement, it is one of the most exhaustive and robust regimes in the history of nuclear non-proliferation,” the French diplomat said. “It is essential for the IAEA to be able to continue verifying Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA and the peaceful nature of that country’s nuclear program.”
Netanyahu made the revelation less than two weeks ahead of a deadline for President Trump to either waive or renew the economic sanctions that former President Barack Obama waived for the deal. Trump has threatened to scrap the pact unless the United States and European allies can address the deal’s perceived flaws, especially the “sunset” provision that allows Iran gradually to ramp up the development of nuclear material. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put a spotlight on those provisions in his reaction to the archive.
“Allowing restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program to sunset was a mistake,” he said in a Monday evening statement. “One has to ask: Why exactly was Iran hiding half a ton of nuclear weaponization files while implementing the Iran deal?”
France seemed to acknowledge that the archive bolsters the case against the sunset clauses, although European allies have regarded a new restriction as a likely violation of the JCPOA.
“The new information presented by Israel could also confirm the need for longer-term assurances on the Iranian program, as the French President has suggested,” the French foreign affairs ministry said.
