Iranian ex-President Hassan Rouhani’s final speech as the Islamic Republic’s chief executive on Sunday, August 1, 2021, drew negative comments on Iranian media outlets. But what was particularly notable in his speech was a comment about the reason for former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran as a significant revelation that was long overdue due to the Iranian politician’s secretive nature.
Rouhani for the first time in two years admitted that Israeli agents stole Iran’s nuclear secrets and handed them over to Trump. Subsequently, he said, Trump pulled out of the deal also called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
In September 2018, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed at the United Nations that Israel had stolen a large secret archive of Iran’s nuclear activities before 2003 that allegedly showed a nuclear weapons acquisition program.
Previously, members of the Rouhani administration, including the foreign ministry spokesmen, Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif and Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, not only had denied the report about the compromised nuclear secrets, but they also ridiculed -then- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and claimed that somebody must have pulled his leg.
The Iranian president on his last day refused to further comment about the information within the stolen documents, but it is speculated they must have indicated that Iran was either not holding up its end of the deal or was dangerously close to achieving a nuclear bomb despite the limitations, hence leaving Trump with no choice but to withdraw from the agreement.
The Iran nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is a landmark accord reached between Iran and several world powers, including the United States, in July 2015. Under its terms, Iran agreed to dismantle much of its nuclear program and open its facilities to more extensive international inspections in exchange for billions of dollars worth of sanctions relief.
Source: Iran International
Also read: EU, G7 condemn Iran attack on ship that killed British and Romanian crew