Who stole secret data of Iran’s atomic installations?
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One may wonder how sophisticated the intelligence system of Israel in the ongoing war with Iran is. The high ranking military officials and scientists of Iranian regime fell victim to the Israeli aggression that started on June 13. True, it’s partly, or mostly, the vulnerability of the Iranian security system and the supremacy of Israeli spying. Apart from these initial conclusions, the reality looks like going much wider.
Indeed Iran lost its top level masterminds. Mohammed Bhageri, Chief of the General Staff of Iran’s armed forces, Hossein Salami, Chief of Iran’s paramilitary revolutionary guard, Gholamali Rashid, Major general who helps Ayotolla Khamnei, Ali Hajizade, Commander of IRGC’s aerospace force, Mohammed Khazemi, head of intelligence for Revolutionary Guards, Feredoun Abbasi, leading scientist, Ali Shamkhani, top advisor to Khamnei were in the hit-list of the Netanyahu regime. Even as the Israeli dispensation can boast of their ability to annihilate those key figures, the operation was not so calibrated or precise as they propagate. Hundreds of civilians were killed in the blanket bombardment.
Anyway, Israeli jets were able to reach out for the scientists, military heads and nuclear sites. How could Israel get the highly secretive information about the locations? Here arises the question of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its role. Most of the places in Iran attacked by Israelis are the ones regularly visited by IAEA inspectors. Does it ring any alarm?
These UN agency officials know well where those Iranian scientists and military heads live and how they move. One may not be naive enough to assume that all of it will go independently and impartially under the banner of UN. The credibility of the agency is in question in many instances.
Israel, a nuclear power, has not yet come under the purview of the international nuclear watchdog. It started the war against Iran citing the non-compliance of nuclear agreement while keeping the nuclear bombs in secret. This double standard itself questions the integrity of IAEA. If a nuclear bomb is a perennial threat to the mankind, then it’s applicable to all. When it comes to the Director General of IAEA, his impartiality is often equally suspect. The top head of this organisation cannot go independently without the pressure from US.
The Guardian of UK published an article in 2010 soon after Mohamed El-Baradei, former DG of IAEA retired from the office. It was about the US cables leaked by Wikileaks on electing the next chief o fIAEA. El-Baradei very often acted in opposition to US stances. The Iraq war was an instance. He was against the US narrative of weapons of mass destruction and his stance later proved true.
His predecessor also was not in friendly terms with the US on nuclear agreements. But the incumbent DG has been almost aligned with the US and Israel, if we can trust the media reports. Rafael Mariano Grossy, the present Director General (DG), is a favourite choice of United States, unlike his predecessor, Yukiya Amano. That’s why Iran questioned the impartiality of the DG. Even China challenged the neutrality of the current DG.
The timing of the beginning of war by Israel validates this fact. US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a long telephone conversation on 9th June which lasted about 40 minutes and both discussed Iran and the nuclear deal. It’s said that both leaders talked about the war against Iran. Interestingly, IAEA issued its statement three days later, that was on Thursday, criticising Iran for breaching non-proliferation agreements. Its 35 member board accused Iran of violating the agreement of uranium enrichment. Notably, the surgical strikes on Iran were planned earlier before the IAEA statement.
What IAEA did was that it announced its decision accusing Iran which helped Netanyahu bolster his decision. This leniency better displays the partisan attitude of the nuclear watchdog. US and Israel got what they wanted. Anyhow, it exposed Israel that its main cause behind the war is not Iran’s nuclear program, but its enmity towards Iran in view of its support for Gaza.
It’s not the existential threat of Iran as Netanyahu claims but the existential enmity that drove the Zionist regime to the war. Not the so called nuclear weaponisation but it is the support for Gaza, as the only country that supports the Palestinians openly, which is the root cause of the conflict. And of course, the role of the international body indirectly helped Israel and US to vindicate their actions .
If a neutral inspector is hand in glove with one party, the other’s internal security will collapse. An outsider can thus get easy access to the secure locations. The latest comments by Trump that he knows where Khamenei is hiding probably would prove this clandestine nexus.
