UN Inspectors Uncover New Evidence of Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program

UN Inspectors Uncover New Evidence of Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program

United Nations inspectors have found new evidence that “Iran has undertaken work on nuclear weapons,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The UN nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), found traces of radioactive material at Iranian nuclear sites, indicating that the regime is secretly building a nuclear bomb, the report suggests.

In recent months, coinciding with the end of President Donald Trump’s tenure, Iran has vastly increased its nuclear capabilities and stockpile. Tehran is ramping up its nuclear infrastructure by installing more centrifuges which are spinning out highly enriched uranium.

The revelations come amid Iranian efforts to cover up the finding of the UN nuclear watchdog. Iran recently urged the IAEA not to publish the details of its nuclear program. “It is expected the international atomic energy agency avoid providing unnecessary details and prevent paving ground for misunderstanding” over Tehran’s nuclear activities, a statement in the Iranian state TV said last month.

The Wall Street Journal reported IAEA inspectors’ finding:

United Nations inspectors have found new evidence of undeclared nuclear activities in Iran, according to three diplomats briefed on the discovery, raising new questions about the scope of the country’s atomic ambitions.

Samples taken from two sites during inspections in the fall by the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency contained traces of radioactive material, the diplomats said, that could indicate Iran has undertaken work on nuclear weapons, based on where it was found. The diplomats said they didn’t know the exact nature of what was found.

Last year, Iran blocked IAEA inspectors from checking the sites involved for seven months, leading to a standoff. (…)

In recent months, Iran has scaled up its nuclear activities, breaching many of the limits in the 2015 nuclear agreement it sealed with the U.S., European powers, Russia and China. These moves started over a year after the Trump administration exited the deal in May 2018 and then imposed broad sanctions on Iran, which had been lifted under the agreement.

Last month, the IAEA confirmed that Iran “had begun installing equipment for the production of uranium metal,” a substance used exclusively in military weaponry, the Associated Press reported.

Despite the mounting evidence, Tehran continues to defend its “peaceful” nuclear activities, while urging President Biden to rejoin the nuclear deal abandoned by his predecessor in 2018.

“Time is running out for the Americans,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif declared on Saturday. “The more America procrastinates, the more it will lose … it will appear that Mr Biden’s administration doesn’t want to rid itself of Trump’s failed legacy,” he mocked.

The Biden White House seems to be taking that advice seriously. As the Washington Post reported on Saturday: “Biden team [is] exploring how U.S. might rejoin Iran nuclear deal.”

Recent reports suggest that the Biden administration is going soft on Iran’s terrorist operations abroad and its brutal suppression for human rights at home. The stance looks similar to the Obama-era appeasement policies.

Biden’s State Department on Saturday removed the pro-Iranian Houthi militia from the list of designated terrorist groups, reversing a decision taken by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. For these who argue that the Trump administration made a mistake in classifying these Iran-backed Yemeni jihadis, here is their official motto: “Allah is Greater, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam.”

With President Trump out of the White House, human rights are on the back burner, too. The Voice of America noted last week that top Biden staffers were “silent on Iran’s rights record” while they worked with Tehran on the nuclear issue.

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