Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks about Iran's nuclear program
Photo: Alex Kolomoisky
Iran says reports of IAEA finding uranium at unnamed site is Israeli plot
Iranian Foreign Ministry calls reports of traces of uranium being found at a location Netanyahu once called Iran's 'secret atomic warehouse,' a 'trap' set up by 'the Zionist regime'
Iran's Foreign Ministry on Sunday rejected as an Israeli "trap" reports that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, found traces of uranium at an Iranian site that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "secret atomic warehouse".
Two months after it was first reported that samples taken at the site had shown traces of uranium, the IAEA on Wednesday told member states at a closed-door briefing that it had found uranium traces at a site in Iran it did not name, but diplomats at the meeting said it was clearly the same place.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (Photo: Reuters, EPA, AP)
"The Zionist regime and Israel are attempting to re-open ... this file," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in remarks carried on state television.
"We have announced that this is a trap," Mousavi said.
"Hopefully the IAEA will maintain its vigilance."
The IAEA confirmed to member states that the traces from samples taken in February were of uranium that was processed but not enriched, and that the explanations provided by Iran so far did not hold water, diplomats said.
In 2018, Netanyahu, who vehemently opposed Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, called on the IAEA to visit the site immediately, saying it had housed 15 kg (33 lb) of unspecified radioactive material that had since been removed.
