*TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday dismissedIsraeli claims that Tehran was harbouring a secret atomic warehouse.*
“No arts & craft show will ever obfuscate that Israel is only regime in ourregion with a *secret* and *undeclared* nuclear weapons programme,” Zarifsaid in a tweet.
He called on Israel saying it was “time to fess up and open its illegalnuclear weapons” programme to international inspectors.
“How can Israel, as the only holder of nuclear weapons in the Middle East,so shamelessly accuse a country whose programmes have repeatedly beendeclared as peaceful by the IAEA,” the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran’s officialIRNA news agency quoted Zarif as saying.
He said Israel and the United States stood “alone” on the world stage, as“policies forced by Netanyahu on America” had driven them both to isolation.
Zarif was responding to allegations made by Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu on Thursday in a speech to the UN General Assembly, embellishedby ample use of the colourful props that have become his trademark.
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Netanyahu held up a map and a photograph of an outwardly “innocent lookingcompound” which he said was a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran and urgedthe IAEA to inspect.
“Today, I’m disclosing for the first time that Iran has another secretfacility in Tehran, a secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amountsof equipment and materiel from Iran’s secret nuclear weapons programme,” hesaid.
Israel, along with Saudi Arabia and its allies, are the main supporters ofUS President Donald Trump’s abandonment of a landmark 2015 nuclear accordbetween the major powers and Iran.
The move, announced in May and accompanied by the subsequent reimpositionof crippling US sanctions, has put Washington at odds with other majorpowers, including longstanding allies. – APP/AFP
