Israel warns it could act against Iranian nuclear programme

Israel has warned that it reserves the right to act to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear bomb if the international community fails to do so.

Prime minister Naftali Bennett told International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi during talks in Jerusalem on Friday that Iran was pushing ahead on developing a nuclear weapon while misleading the world with “false information and lies” to conceal its work.

“While Israel prefers diplomacy in order to deny Iran the possibility of developing nuclear weapons, it reserves the right to self-defence and to take action against Iran in order to block its nuclear programme should the international community not succeed in the relevant time frame,” a statement from Mr Bennett said, following the talks.

The talks took place ahead of Monday’s scheduled IAEA board of governors’ meeting, at which the US and the E3 — Britain, France and Germany — plan to push for the nuclear watchdog to rebuke Iran following a report by Mr Grossi that Iran has enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon and has not provided credible explanations for the IAEA’s findings of violations.

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Iran has always insisted that its nuclear programme is peaceful and condemned the UN watchdog’s report as “not fair and balanced”, saying it “does not reflect the reality of the negotiations between Iran and the IAEA”.

“We will respond firmly and appropriately to any unconstructive action at the board of governors,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh warned in a statement.

Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said the IAEA head’s visit to Israel was in conflict with the agency’s impartiality, Iranian media reported.

Earlier this week Mr Bennett published documents he said were taken from Iran and showed Iranian intelligence spied on the IAEA to better cover up Tehran’s rogue nuclear activities. The documents come from the nuclear archive Israel smuggled out of Iran in 2018.

He tweeted a link to the Persian-language files, along with a video in which he responded to remarks by Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian dismissing the spying allegations as “Zionist lies”.

The western powers have been reluctant to promote resolutions against Iran at the IAEA in recent years, in order to continue negotiations to have the US and Iran return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

However, talks to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action were derailed after Russia invaded Ukraine and the decision by US president Joe Biden not to remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the state department’s list of foreign terrorist organisations.

Amid the ongoing uncertainty of reviving the Iran nuclear deal, Israel’s military has stepped up preparations to strike against Tehran’s nuclear facilities and on Friday concluded a wide-scale exercise, dubbed Chariots of Fire, simulating attacks against underground nuclear facilities and reacting to expected retaliation from Tehran and Iranian proxies in the region.