Europe says Bibi’s ‘atomic archive’ pitch proves need for Iran deal
European powers and Russia said Israel’s claimed seizure of documents from Iran’s shuttered nuclear weapons research program proves the need for 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
WASHINGTON — European powers and Russia said Tuesday that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that Israel has obtained a 50,000-plus page archive of Iran’s pre-2003 nuclear weapons research from a storage warehouse in Tehran only proves the need to maintain the Iran nuclear deal. But European reaction to Netanyahu’s televised presentation Monday comes as diplomats see growing signs that US President Donald Trump will not issue Iran nuclear-related sanctions waivers this month and instead announce he is withdrawing from the deal.
“The Israeli prime minister’s presentation on Iran’s past research into nuclear weapons technology underlines the importance of keeping the Iran nuclear deal’s constraints on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions,” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Tuesday.
“The deal was put in place exactly because there was no trust between the parties, otherwise we would not have required a nuclear deal to be put in place,” European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.
“The relevance of this [Iran nuclear] agreement is heightened by the information Israel has presented,” a French Foreign Ministry representative said Tuesday.
