Israel Accuses Iran of Lying about Their Nuclear Program, Nudging Trump to End the Deal

As the end of Iran nuclear deal approaches, President Trump faces nudges and pressure from Israel and Europe, two opposing stances towards the future of the deal.

On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel accused Iran of lying on its developments and progress on its nuclear weapon program. This accusation was based off from a stolen archive of Iranian nuclear plans that have been acquired by the prime minister.

This allegation came at a tricky time as President Trump is about to decide whether to pull of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran or not. These records presented by Mr. Netanyahu may signal that Iran has been developing its nuclear program not for peaceful purposes like it has claimed. According to an Israeli officer, these archives were seized during an overnight raid in January by Israeli spies.

However, these records failed to indicate that Iran has violated or transgressed any of its agreements with the United States, but instead served as a clear indication of Mr.Netanyahu’s intent on pressuring President Trump towards discarding the agreement on May 12.

President Trump is also receiving pressure and hints from European leaders, including President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. They have spoken to the administration about securing the Iran deal rather than ridding of it.

However, Mr. Trump so far has shown no clear indication of his plans. Regarding the future of the deal, his answer was vague, inaccurate and rather open-ended:“ In seven years, that deal will have expired, and Iran will be free to make nuclear weapons.” In fact, according to the deal, Iran cannot start producing nuclear fuel until 2030 and the production of nuclear weapons is banned completely under its agreement of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

In response to these accusations, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, a top Iranian negotiator of the nuclear agreement, dismissed them as “a very childish and even a ridiculous play.”

Despite its anger and rejection of Mr. Netanyahu’s accusation, it’s no secret that Iran has been secretly developing its nuclear program. These efforts have been previously stalled under the Bush and the Obama administration with the Iran nuclear deal and the possibility of Iran possessing nuclear capacity is carefully assessed by American intelligence agencies.

According to the clause of the deal, Iran was required to vacate 97 percent of its nuclear fuel and to rid almost entirely its nuclear centrifuges that enrich uranium.

Israel’s push towards President Trump to abandon the deal is apparent in Mr. Netanyahu’s accusation and presentation to the White House. He insisted that Iran has violated the deal despite the lack of concrete evidence from his presentation and claimed that the Iranians have lied in their declarations to the I.A.E.A. in 2015 about their intentions. He accused of the Iranians of planning to build a weapon in the first place despite its consistent denial.

However, many Israeli officers seem confident in securing President Trump’s stance against the deal. They believe that Trump has already made his decision. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo commented that the intelligence agencies have already started investigating the archives presented by Mr. Netanyahu and have corroborated with his claim partially that “at the very least the Iranians continued to lie to their own people.”

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