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Edited by: TJVNews.com

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday slammed International Atomic Energy Agency director General Rafael Grossi for saying on Saturday that it would be illegal for Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear plant, as was reported by World Israel News.

During discussions in Iran, Grossi initially was discussing the Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, which Russia was attacking while receiving military aid from the Islamic Republic. WIN reported that he then clarified his position in response to questions that such an attack would be illegal anywhere, including an attack by Israel on Iranian facilities.

“We certainly hope that we are going to be able to protect the nuclear power plant which is under threat now, which is Zaporizhzhia. But this is valid and applicable to every nuclear facility in the world,” Grossi said, according to the WIN report.

Netanyahu responded defiantly, saying “it is clear that we are attacking Iranian nuclear sites and we will do so.

In a statement to the media, the Israeli prime minister said, “International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi just said in Tehran that an Israeli attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities is against the law. Rafael Grossi is a worthy gentleman who said something unworthy. Against which law?”

Netanyahu added that “Is Iran, which openly calls for our destruction, permitted to defend the destructive weapons that would slaughter us? Are we permitted to defend ourselves?

“It is clear that we are,” he said, referring to successful attacks in recent years, as was reported by WIN.  “And it is clear that we will do so. And we will do so in discussions or actions around the clock, which I will not detail here, of course. I say this because nothing will deter us from defending our country and preventing our enemies from eliminating the state of the Jews,” Netanyahu said.

“We are on the eve of Purim: 2,500 years ago, an enemy arose in Persia who sought to destroy the Jews. They did not succeed then, neither will they succeed today,” he concluded.

WIN also reported that inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog found uranium particles enriched up to 83.7% in Iran’s underground Fordo nuclear site, according to a report seen last week.

Following two days of talks with Grossi in Tehran, Iran has promised to cooperate more with the nuclear watchdog while leaving the details vague, WIN reported.

In a joint statement on Saturday, Iran’s atomic agency and the IAEA said they had agreed that Iran would “provide further information and access to address the outstanding safeguards issues” regarding “the three locations.” WIN reported that these are places where traces of uranium particles were found but which the Islamic Republic had never declared as nuclear sites.

Netanyahu had outed an alleged secret nuclear warehouse in the Turquzabad district of Tehran, in a 2018 address to the UN, WIN reported. The next year, he broke the news of another site, used for nuclear experimentation, located in Abadeh, south of Isfahan, which he said the authorities had destroyed and covered over as soon as they learned that it had been discovered. WIN also reported that a third site, just east of Tehran, was revealed in 2020 by the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran.

Information on all three was provided to the IAEA, but Iran has not allowed outside inspectors to visit any of the sites except Turquzabad, calling such inspections last year “unconstructive,” and threatening that “the agency should be aware of the destructive consequences of publishing such one-sided reports,” referring to Iran’s supposed intransigence on the issue, according to the WIN report.

The joint statement also referred ambiguously to some 30 IAEA cameras that Iran removed last June in such known nuclear facilities as Isfahan and Natanz, following a rare rebuke by most of the members of the agency’s 35-nation board of governors about Tehran’s stonewalling, the report from WIN said.

“Iran, on a voluntary basis will allow the IAEA to implement further appropriate verification and monitoring activities,” it said, with “modalities” to be agreed upon “soon.”

Iran has made promises on both issues before without following through.

WIN also reported that Grossi had warned at the time that disconnecting the cameras and enrichment monitors meant that the IAEA would no longer have a “continuity of knowledge” about Iran’s nuclear programs, which “would be a fatal blow” to any resuscitation of a nuclear deal with Tehran.

The most recent issue that has sharply raised concerns in the West was not addressed at all – that of the discovery that Iran has enriched at least some uranium to a staggering 84% level of purity, just a hairsbreadth away from official nuclear-weapons grade, according to the WIN report. Tehran has denied trying for this level, saying that perhaps a tiny amount was only enriched that far accidentally.

Even the 60% level that Iran has admitted to producing can be used in a so-called dirty bomb, as was reported by WIN. The nuclear bombs that the American used to hit Nagasaki and Hiroshima to end World War II with Japan used a mixture of 89% and 50% purity, for an average of 80%. WIN reported that less than a kilo of its 64-kilo weight actually underwent nuclear fission, yet it exploded with the energy of approximately 15 kilotons of TNT.

Grossi met not only with his local nuclear counterpart, Mohammad Eslami, who is also the Iranian vice president, but also with President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, according to the WIN report. This perhaps underlined the seriousness with which the Islamic Republic is taking the quarterly meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors on Monday, which could theoretically turn the issue of Iran’s defiance over to the UN Security Council.

The way the 2015 nuclear deal was constructed, snapback sanctions on Iran cannot be vetoed by any nation, meaning that neither Russia nor China could stop the process if Iran is officially found to be noncompliant under the terms of the treaty, as was reported by WIN.

On February 19th, JNS.org reported that Israel is ceaselessly confronting Iran’s nefarious activities, as the Islamic Republic’s attempts to attack the Jewish state are unending, Netanyahu said at the time.

Speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said, “On the Iranian front, our efforts are unceasing for the simple reason that Iran’s acts of aggression are unceasing,” JNS.org reported.

In February, Iran again attacked an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and struck at the international freedom of navigation, JNS reported. On February 18th, Iran attacked an American base in Syria. Iran continues to send deadly weapons that attack masses of innocent civilians far from its borders.

BBC Persian reported in February that an Israeli-linked oil tanker was targeted in the Persian Gulf by Iranian forces, according to the JNS article. The attack, which according to the report took place on February 10, targeted the Liberia-flagged Campo Square, whose owner is Zodiac Maritime, a shipping company led by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer,  JNS reported in February.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in February told the annual Munich Security Conference that Tehran was currently engaged in negotiations to sell dozens of countries advanced weapons ahead of the upcoming expiration of a U.N. arms embargo on the Islamic Republic.

“Iran is no longer a ‘local supplier’ serving proxies in the Middle East. It is a ‘multinational corporation,’ a global exporter of advanced weapons,” said Gallant, as was reported by JNS. “From Belarus in Eastern Europe to Venezuela in South America—we have seen Iran delivering UAVs with a range of up to 1,000 kilometers. In fact, Iran is currently holding discussions to sell advanced weapons … to no less than 50 different countries.”

JNS.org reported in February  that Gallant called on world powers to take concrete steps to prevent the proliferation of Iranian arms once the U.N. arms embargo expires on Oct. 18 in accordance with the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) from which the United States withdrew in May 2018.

Netanyahu on further emphasized in February that Jerusalem’s commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and entrenching itself militarily along Israel’s northern border.

“We are doing—and will do—everything to defend our people, and we are responding forcefully to the attacks against us,” he said, as was reported by JNS.

“I would like to stress something else: Iran is not only trying to attack us physically. It is trying to attack our national morale. It is trying to undermine our unity as a people,” Netanyahu added, according to the JNS report in February.

“I heard the remarks by Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon. I heard [Hassan] Nasrallah’s remarks when he spoke about the demonstrations against the government and said with satisfaction that a civil war in Israel is approaching,” Netanyahu said, according to the JNS report.

“Therefore, I say to Nasrallah: Don’t count on a civil war. It will not happen. It will not happen because we are indeed brothers. It will not happen because what Nasrallah does not understand is that we are a living democracy. In a democracy, there are differences of opinion and debates. Sometimes there is agreement and when it is necessary, there are decisions. There will be no civil war because we always remember that we have fought shoulder-to-shoulder to defend our state and build our land,” he added.

JNS also reported that Hezbollah chief Nasrallah in February referred to the rift in Israeli society over the government’s planned judicial reforms, saying in a speech broadcast live on giant television screens in Beirut that the “foolish government in Israel is pushing for two major conflicts—an internal conflict within Israel and a conflict with the Palestinians that will expand to the region.”

“We are hearing discourse from the entity’s president [Isaac Herzog] and former prime ministers [Yair] Lapid, Naftali Bennett, Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak and former defense ministers and a general who talk about civil war and bloodshed and that there is no solution to the challenges posed by the new government,” the Lebanese terrorist leader said, as was reported in February by JNS.org.

“At this opportunity, I am pleased to disappoint our enemies and also reassure our friends: Israel is, and will remain, a strong, vibrant and independent democracy,” Netanyahu said.

“It is precisely against the backdrop of the expectations of our enemies, expectations of destruction and bloodshed, that talk of blood in the streets must stop. The flames need to be lowered. The mood needs to be calmed,” said Netanyahu, adding: “This is the clear call that I am making from here and I expect all public leaders to say these clear words. This is what the Israeli public expects of us and it is the clear message that we need to send to our enemies, “ JNS.org reported.

In related news, World Israel News reported on March 4th that the British Navy said it intercepted Iranian smugglers who were attempting to transport anti-tank missiles, ballistic missile components, and other weapons through the Gulf of Oman last month, as was originally reported by Reuters.

According to the Reuters report, UK forces – including a helicopter – worked in collaboration with an unmanned U.S. intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance plane to track Iranian smugglers who were speeding through the Gulf under the cover of darkness.

The smugglers’ vessel tried to enter Iranian territorial waters when spotted by British naval forces. Eventually, the boat was boarded by Royal Marines, who discovered the weapons onboard, WIN reported.

“This seizure by HMS Lancaster and the permanent presence of the Royal Navy in the Gulf region supports our commitment to upholding international law and tackle activity that threatens peace and security around the world,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a statement.

Medium-range ballistic missile components, anti-tank guided missiles, and other war-grade weaponry was found on the boat, Britain said, as was reported by WIN. There was no indication as to which country the vessel had intended to reach.

This latest smuggling bust comes after two similar incidents in 2022, in which the Navy stopped Iranian weapons transports through the Gulf, as indicated in the WIN report.

In July 2022, a British warship acting under the guidance of U.S. intelligence stopped an Iranian smuggler’s boat which officials said contained “dozens of packages containing advanced weaponry.”

In a statement to the media, the US Navy noted that the “weapons were seized along routes historically used to traffic weapons unlawfully to Yemen,” suggesting that they were bound for the Houthi rebel group in the southern Yemeni peninsula, as was reported by WIN.

The Houthi rebels, who are supported by Iran, have long been engaged in an armed conflict with Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. WIN also reported that President Joe Biden removed the Houthi rebels from a list of terror groups recognized by the U.S. government, which irked the Gulf kingdoms.

In other Iran related news, WIN reported on Sunday that a legal think tank published a report last week accusing Iran of being behind a map targeting hundreds of American government agencies as well many Jewish individuals and institutions in Massachusetts, in a website that was outed last June.

While the anti-Semitic angle of the Boston Mapping Project was widely covered at the time, in a 24-page report entitled “The Unseen Threat of the Mapping Project,” the Zachor Legal Institute wrote that the “true goal” of the website may well have been “to map the American security apparatus, and that the targeting of the American Jewish community – while real and troubling – may be a façade to obfuscate this plan,” WIN reported.

Still, the “harmonious encapsulation” of both “the core ideologies of the extreme left and extreme right anti-Semitism” in its target list of some 200 Jewish groups and their employees was one of the reasons Zachor gave for stating that the project was “the product of a foreign agenda.” WIN indicated that the report said it would be “highly irregular” for a single American entity to be able to harmonize the two extremes “to garner support among radical Americans on both sides of the aisle.”

Sources: WorldIsraelNews.com and JNS.org.