IAEA refuses to take Israel's intel 'at face value'

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The UN nuclear watchdog has said its independence is paramount and it does not take intelligence presented to it at face value, in an apparent response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's description of a "secret atomic warehouse" in Iran.

Netanyahu – who opposes the nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is policing – made the statement in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week.

He urged the IAEA to visit the site in Tehran. A US State Department official later seconded that call.

"The agency sends inspectors to sites and locations only when needed. The agency uses all safeguards relevant to information available to it but it does not take any information at face value," IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said in a statement on Tuesday.

Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, speaks at a press conference in Vienna, Austria, March 5, 2018. /VCG Photo

Amano's statement made no specific reference to Israel or the statement but it is his first public pronouncement since Netanyahu's speech. He said the IAEA has carried out so-called complementary access inspections, which are often at short notice, at all locations in Iran it has needed to visit.

"All information obtained, including from third parties, is subject to rigorous review and assessed together with other available information to arrive at an independent assessment based on the agency's own expertise," Amano said.

"In order to maintain credibility, the agency's independence in relation to the implementation of verification activities is of paramount importance," he added.

The Iranian side has called Netanyahu's allegation an "arts and craft show", with the country's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif posting a rebuttal twitter shortly after Netanyahu's UN speech.

Screenshot of the official website of Iranian Froeign Minister Javad Zarif's twitter account

Addressing the UN General Assembly on Thursday, Netanyahu dedicated much of his 40-minute speech to Iran's nuclear threat.

The Israeli prime minister – a vocal opponent of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – insisted that a secret atomic warehouse in Tehran was holding nuclear-related material and called on the IAEA to inspect the site.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a photo of an alleged Iranian secret atomic warehouse as he addresses the UN General Assembly in New York, US, September 27, 2018. /VCG Photo

He also accused Iran of waging violence in the region and supporting Hamas in Gaza, and attacked the European Union (EU) for what he called its "appeasement" of Tehran.

Source(s): Reuters