IAEA: Iran Hid Nuclear Sites, Pushing Toward Nuclear Weapons

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Is anyone really surprised by this? Even at the White House, which had hoped for a peace agreement rather than a confrontation? Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is its timing, given the context of the current situation.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog has completed an investigation into Iranian activities, mainly covert, and has delivered a damning report about the regime in Tehran. Not only does the IAEA confirm that Iran has consistently cheated in its agreements on nuclear energy, they are pushing hard for more enrichment to successfully build several nuclear weapons:

Iran carried out secret nuclear activities with material not declared to the U.N. nuclear watchdog at three locations that have long been under investigation, the watchdog said in a wide-ranging, confidential report to member states seen by Reuters.

The findings in the “comprehensive” International Atomic Energy Agency report requested by the agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors in November pave the way for a push by the United States, Britain, France and Germany for the board to declare Iran in violation of its non-proliferation obligations.

A resolution would infuriate Iran and could further complicate nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington.

Using the IAEA report’s findings, the four Western powers plan to submit a draft resolution for the board to adopt at its next meeting the week of June 9, diplomats say. It would be the first time in almost 20 years Iran has formally been found in non-compliance.

“Complicate”? It might make things a lot more simple for Israel, which has sent out a consistent stream of warnings about Iranian violations and progress toward nuclear weapons. The likelihood of Israeli military action is even higher, thanks to a separate IAEA report that warns Iran may be just about ready to build nine nuclear weapons:

A separate IAEA report sent to member states on Saturday said Iran’s stock of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% of weapons grade, had grown by roughly half to 408.6 kg. That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick.

Approximately 42 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium is theoretically enough to produce one atomic bomb, if enriched further to 90%, according to the watchdog.

The IAEA report raised a stern warning, saying that Iran is now “the only non-nuclear-weapon state to produce such material” — something the agency said was of “serious concern.”

Benjamin Netanyahu took time out from his Shabbat observance to issue a warning to the West. Either act now to stop Iran’s nuclear program, or else:

“The international community must act now to stop Iran,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, adding that the level of uranium enrichment Iran had reached “exists only in countries actively pursuing nuclear weapons and has no civilian justification whatsoever.”

What will that mean for Donald Trump’s efforts to head off a war? We’d certainly like to know, but as of 11 am ET, none of the major newspapers carried the IAEA report on their front pages — not the Washington Post, not the New York Times, nor the Wall Street Journal. CNN, which should be more nimble about breaking news stories, didn’t have anything either. (The NYT did have front-page space enough to report on a Miley Cyrus AMA and Molly Jong-Fast’s literary exploration of her mother’s dementia, however. The latter does sound heartbreaking and worthwhile, to be fair.) Maybe the American media establishment doesn’t find covert Iranian nuclear-weapons development as newsworthy as the shrieking over the US-Israel aid provisions in Gaza. YMMV.

Anyway, the clock is certainly ticking now on an Israeli military response to a threat that has been advancing for decades while everyone did their best to look away. According to Reuters, the meeting on June 9 has the potential to snarl talks with the US designed to defuse the situation by formally declaring Iran as non-compliant, which is bitterly humorous in itself. If the Western powers don’t force Iran to put an end to these programs, Israel will — and no one really wants that, not even the Israelis. But they don’t want to live under nuclear blackmail from Tehran’s Islamist theocrats either, and the fecklessness of the West has now left Israel with nothing but bad and worse choices for its survival. Right now, it’s not even clear that Israel will wait for that June 9 meeting, but everyone had better be clear that Netanyahu’s not going to wait much longer after it for the world to take action.