by Mati Tuchfeld, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Addressing U.N. General Assembly, prime minister urges tougher action against Iran, says European leaders must join U.S. efforts to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions
PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the U.N. Assembly, Thursday
Photo: AP
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday described what he said was a secret atomic warehouse in Iran and accused Europe of appeasing Iran.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu showed an aerial photograph of the Iranian capital marked with a red arrow and pointed to what he said was a previously secret warehouse holding nuclear-related material.
In May, Netanyahu revealed that Israel had obtained incriminating evidence from an Iranian archive, proving Tehran has lied to world powers during and after the signing of the 2015 nuclear agreement.
The evidence – over 100,000 pages and 183 CDs – was obtained in a secret operation by the Mossad, Israel's national intelligence agency.
Addressing world leaders on Thursday,
Netanyahu accused Iran of hiding a clandestine nuclear warehouse in a
rug-cleaning plant in Tehran, arguing that this showed Iran still
sought to obtain nuclear weapons despite ostensibly agreeing to
relinquish this aspiration.
Netanyahu said the site in question
contained some 33 pounds of radioactive material that has since been
moved, and called on the U.N. atomic agency to inspect the location
immediately.
Criticizing the IAEA he said, "In May, I
presented a short summary of what we obtained to the international
media. I provided hard evidence of Iran's plans to build nuclear
weapons and its plans to deceive the international community. Israel
shared this information and even more damning evidence that we found
with members of the P5+1, and with the International Atomic Energy
Agency.
"Months have passed. The IAEA has still
not taken any action. It has not posed a single question to Iran. It
has not demanded to inspect a single new site discovered in that secret
archive.
"So, given this inaction, I decided to
reveal today something else that we have shared with the IAEA and with
a few intelligence agencies. Today, I am disclosing for the first time
that Iran has another secret facility in Tehran – a secret atomic
warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and material from
Iran's secret nuclear weapons program."
Holding up the image of the facility, he
said, "Here it is. You see, like the atomic archive, it's another
innocent looking compound."
Netanyahu noted that Iran was aware that
the site had been discovered and was working to clean it out, to
further deceive the IAEA.
"You have to ask yourself a question. Why
did Iran keep a secret atomic archive and a secret atomic warehouse? …
The answer to the question is simple. The reason Iran didn't destroy
its atomic archive and its atomic warehouse is because it hasn't
abandoned its goal to develop nuclear weapons. In fact, it planned to
use both of these sites in a few years when the time would be right to
break out to the atom bomb.
"But, ladies and gentlemen, rest assured,
that won't happen. It won't happen because what Iran hides, Israel
will find," he asserted.
Netanyahu urged IAEA head Yukiya Amano to
"do the right thing. Go inspect this atomic warehouse, immediately,
before the Iranians finish clearing it out."
Taking aim at the ayatollahs' regime,
Netanyahu said, "I also have a message today for the tyrants of
Tehran: Israel knows what you're doing, and Israel knows where you're
doing it. Israel will never let a regime that calls for our destruction
to develop nuclear weapons. Not now, not in 10 years, not ever.
"Israel will do whatever it must do to
defend itself against Iran's aggression. We will continue to act
against you in Syria. We will act against you in Lebanon. We will act
against you in Iraq. We will act against you whenever and wherever we
must act to defend our state and defend our people."
Warning that Iran's hegemony aspirations
would never be confined to the Middle East, Netanyahu criticized the
fact that "while the United States is confronting Iran with new
sanctions, Europe and others are appeasing Iran by trying to help it
bypass those sanctions.
"I'm a historian's son, I have to ask. I
ask not merely as an historian's son, I ask it as a Jew, as a citizen
of the world, as someone who's lived through the 20th century: Have
these European leaders learned nothing from history? Will they ever
wake up?
Well, we in Israel, we don't need a wakeup
call, because Iran threatens us every day. Because despite the best of
hope, and there were many hopes around the nuclear deal, this deal did
not push war further away. It brought war ever closer to our borders,"
the prime minister said.
He lambasted Iran for its involvement in
the Syrian civil war and its attempt to establish permanent military
bases there from which to attack Israel, as well as for its funding and
arming of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist group.
He then presented evidence that the latter
was using Iranian funding to build weapon production facilities in the
heart of Lebanese capital, including near the Beirut's international
airport.
Seattleite images of Iranian-funded Hezbollah facilities in Beirut IDF Spokesman's Unit
"I also have a message for Hezbollah today: Israel knows, Israel also knows what you're doing. Israel knows where you're doing it. And Israel will not let you get away with it," Netanyahu declared.
He lauded U.S. President Donald Trump's
decision to withdraw from the 2015 deal and impose new sanctions on
the Islamic republic, saying, "Israel is deeply grateful to President
Trump for his bold decision to withdraw from the disastrous nuclear
deal with Iran. Many, many of our Arab neighbors are also grateful.
And everyone who cares about the peace and security of the world
should also be grateful."
Netanyahu urged European leaders to do the same.
"Instead of coddling Iran's dictators,
join the U.S. and Israel and most of the Arab world in supporting new
sanctions against a regime that endangers all of us and all of the
world," he said.
The prime minister also hailed Arab states
that have been pursuing stronger ties with Israel following the
nuclear deal, saying the Iranian threat has, in fact, "brought Israel
and many Arab states closer together than ever before, closer together
than ever before, in an intimacy and friendship that I've not seen in
my lifetime and would have been unimaginable a few years ago.
"Israel deeply values these new
friendships, and I hope the day will soon arrive when Israel will be
able to expand peace, a formal peace, beyond Egypt and Jordan to other
Arab neighbors, including the Palestinians. I look forward to working
with President Trump and his peace team to achieve that goal."
After thanking Trump and U.S. Ambassador to
the U.N. Nikki Haley "for the unwavering support they have provided
Israel at the United Nations," the prime minister lauded the U.S. for
deciding to halt its funding of UNRWA, the U.N. agency that aids
Palestinian refugees.
UNRWA claims it serves 5 million
Palestinian refugees in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip, but Washington and Jerusalem dispute this figure, saying
that UNRWA policies only perpetuate the Palestinian notion of
refugeehood thus undermining the chances for peace.
Criticizing the U.N. for its clear
anti-Israel bias, Netanyahu said, "Day after day, the Trump
administration has stood up to what has long been a specialty here at
the UN – slandering Israel. Even though the shameful resolution
comparing Zionism to racism was repealed 25 years ago, I'm sorry to say
that its foul stench still clings to these halls.
"Here at the U.N. Israel is absurdly
accused of racism … apartheid … and ethnic cleansing. Ladies and
gentlemen, you know what this is? It's the same old antisemitism with a
brand new face. That's all it is," he said, adding, "What is unique
about the Jewish people is not that we have a nation-state. What is
unique is that many still oppose us having a nation state."
'This is not how you achieve peace'
Turning his attention to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu blasted Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas, who spoke shortly before him, for rejecting
all efforts to promote the regional peace process.
"Moments ago, President Abbas outrageously
said that Israel's Nation-State Law proves that Israel is a racist,
apartheid state.
"President Abbas, you should know better,"
Netanyahu exclaimed. "You wrote a dissertation denying the Holocaust.
Your Palestinian Authority imposes death sentences on Palestinians for
selling land to Jews. Did you hear that? If a Jew buys an apartment, a
piece of land anywhere in the Palestinian territories, the
Palestinian who sold him that land is executed. That's what the law
says.
"President Abbas, you proudly pay
Palestinian terrorists who murder Jews. In fact, the more they slay,
the more you pay. That's in their law too. And you condemn Israel's
morality? You call Israel racist?
"This is not the way to peace. This is not
the way to achieve the peace we all want and need and to which Israel
remains committed. This body should not be applauding the head of a
regime that pays terrorists. The U.N. should condemn such a despicable
policy."
Lauding Israel's achievements, Netanyahu
said, "The nation-state of Israel is the only place where the Jewish
people proudly exercise our collective right of self-determination.
That right was recognized nearly a century ago by the League of Nations
and over 70 years ago by the United Nations when it voted to support
the establishment of a Jewish state. That's what it said, that
resolution – a Jewish state.
"At the same time, Israel is a vibrant
democracy, where all its citizens –Jews and non-Jews alike – enjoy
equal individual rights, and these rights are guaranteed by law.
"In the Middle East, that's not obvious,
now that's an understatement, In the Middle East, where women are
often treated as property, minorities are persecuted, gays are hanged,
Israel stands out as a shining example of freedom and progress. I could
not be more proud to represent my country, Israel," he said.
Mati Tuchfeld, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/09/28/at-un-netanyahu-exposes-another-secret-iranian-%e2%80%8enuclear-warehouse-%e2%80%8e/
Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter
