Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program Ran For Years Says IAEA

Elliott Abrams

Iran, Middle East

"Iran was in fact working on nuclear weapons until at least 2009, and has refused to 'come clean.'"

The nuclear deal with Iran requires that it tell the truth–the whole truth–about its previous efforts to build a nuclear weapon.

As Sen. Mark Kirk said this week,

senior Administration officials repeatedly told the American people that Iran should come clean on all nuclear weapons activities as part of any final deal:

•  “…[W]e have required that Iran come clean on its past actions as part of any comprehensive agreement….”—Then-Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, February 4, 2014

•  “They have to do it.  It will be done.  If there’s going to be a deal; it will be done.”—Secretary of State John Kerry, April 8, 2015

After the Iran nuclear agreement was signed, the Administration reversed itself:

• An Iranian admission of its past nuclear weapons program is unlikely and is not necessary for purposes of verifying commitments going forward.”—Unclassified Verification Assessment Report for Congress Pursuant to the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, July 19, 2015, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal

Why this reversal? We now have some evidence of why: Iran was in fact working on nuclear weapons until at least 2009, and has refused to “come clean.” To have demanded that Iran truly comply with the language of the nuclear deal might have torn the deal apart, and the Obama administration would not allow that–at any cost. The newest IAEA report on the Iranian program is described in The New York Times: