Trump Cannot Ignore the Latest Damning Evidence of Iran’s Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21680/ran-pursuit-of-nuclear-weapons

The findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency report, which were which are being discussed at this week’s IAEA meeting in Vienna this week, should certainly leave the Trump administration in no doubt about the extent of the duplicity that has long characterised Tehran’s dealings with the IAEA over its nuclear ambitions.

The findings should also persuade Trump to adopt a more robust approach in his dealings with Iran.

This is not warmongering; this is peace-mongering – to prevent Iran from creating even greater devastation later.

Rather than persisting with his efforts to appease the ayatollahs, the publication of new damning evidence about Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons programme should persuade Trump that he has no serious option other than to confront Tehran over its deceitful nuclear activities, as well as its ballistic missile programme, also able to conventionally blackmail Iran’s oil-rich Sunni neighbours, Europe and eventually possibly the US itself.

Amid concerns that US President Donald J. Trump is backtracking on his pledge to confront Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, new evidence pointing to Iran’s clandestine attempts to develop nuclear weapons should persuade the Trump administration to make the Iran threat one of its top priorities.

The latest evidence that Tehran has spent the past few decades developing nuclear weapons has come in the form of a bombshell report published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN-sponsored body responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities.

The IAEA has previously identified a number of glaring inconsistencies in Iran’s official declarations about its nuclear programme, which have resulted in the imposition of Western sanctions.

There has, for example, been a long-running dispute lasting nearly two decades between Iran and the West after IAEA inspectors found traces of undeclared enriched uranium at the top-secret Parchin military facility, located around 20 miles southeast of Tehran.