WarSclerotic

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif derided Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, shortly after Israel declassified documents Netanyahu said prove Iran lied about not pursuing nuclear weapons on the eve of a 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers.

“Breaking: The boy who can’t stop crying wolf is at it again,” Zarif tweeted after Netanyahu staged a presentation Monday, unveiling what he termed a “half a ton” of documents procured by Israeli intelligence agents proving Iranian deception.

Mocking Netanyahu’s use of a cartoon bomb diagram in a 2012 address at the United Nations General Assembly, the tweet said Iran was “undeterred by the cartoon fiasco at UNGA. You can only fool some of the people so many times.”

Zarif called Israel’s accusations regarding Tehran’s nuclear program “old allegations” that had already been resolved in the past by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On May 12, U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to decide whether to restore crippling economic sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the 2015 agreement. Should he decide to reimpose sanctions, the deal, meant to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, would effectively collapse.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi attacked Netanyahu for his presentation, saying it was an act of political desperation and calling the prime minister a “lying and scandal-hit bankrupt,” who has “nothing to offer but rumor-mongering and deception.”

“The heads of the Zionist regime see the survival of their illegitimate and lie-based regime dependent on portraying others as threats using the worn-out charlatanism of the age of ignorance,” Qassemi added.

In another tweet, Zarif wrote that “Pres. Trump is jumping on a rehash of old allegations already dealt with by the IAEA to ‘nix’ the deal.”

“How convenient. Coordinated timing of alleged intelligence revelations by the boy who cries wolf just days before May 12. But Trump’s impetuousness to celebrate blew the cover,” Zarif tweeted.

Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported on Monday that Israel’s allegations about Tehran’s nuclear program were “childish and ridiculous,” and clearly aimed at affecting Trump’s decision.

“Netanyahu’s show was a childish and ridiculous game. … The planned show ahead of May 12 deadline is meant to affect Trump’s decision on Iran’s nuclear deal,” Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, was quoted by Tasnim as saying.

In an interview with the Iranian Students News Agency, Araqchi said, “Regardless of whether the U.S. withdraws from the deal or not, the continued status quo is intolerable and we will consider taking special steps. Iran is ready for any eventuality concerning the 2015 nuclear deal.”

Meanwhile Monday, Iranian TV quoted an official as saying that Netanyahu “didn’t learn his lesson from previous times. We won’t be silenced and will be sure to respond appropriately.”

The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said on Monday that Iran has the technical capability to enrich uranium to a higher level than it could before the multinational deal was reached.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, threatened that if the U.S. withdraws from the agreement, Iran would be at an advantage to further develop nuclear capabilities.

“I have said this more than once, that technically, we are fully capable of returning [to enriching uranium] further than in the past and in parts comparably higher than before,” Salehi said.

“We hope that we never have to come to this situation,” he continued, “and hope that Mr. Trump and his colleagues, his government, come to their senses and do not cause a headache and create problems either for themselves nor for us or others.”

Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, blasted the West’s demand to put the Iranian missile program under supervision, one of Trump’s main conditions for remaining in the nuclear deal.

“Our enemies want us to disarm while they threaten us,” he said on Monday. “This act is immoral, irrational and ambitious.”

He warned that “we will never abandon our deterrence capability or disarm.”

Iran has the technical capability to enrich uranium to a higher level than it could before a multinational nuclear deal was reached to curb its nuclear program, state TV quoted the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, as saying Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump has given world powers involved in a 2015 deal meant to curb Iran’s nuclear aspirations a May 12 deadline to “fix the terrible flaws” in the agreement, or he will withdraw from it, effectively burying it.

Salehi warned Trump against taking that course.

“Iran is not bluffing,” he said. “Technically, we are fully prepared to enrich uranium higher than we used to produce before the deal was reached.”

“I hope Trump comes to his senses and stays in the deal,” Salehi added.

Under the deal, which led to the lifting of most international sanctions in 2016, Iran’s level of uranium enrichment cannot exceed 3.6%.

Iran stopped producing 20% enriched uranium and gave up the majority of its stockpile as part of the agreement with the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia.

Uranium refined to 20% fissile purity is well beyond the 5% normally required to fuel civilian nuclear power plants, although still well short of highly enriched 80 to 90% purity needed for a nuclear bomb.

Tehran has dismissed Trump’s demands to fix the agreement, ruling out any possibility of negotiations regarding Iran’s ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 and its international role in the Middle East.

Although Britain, France and Germany back the deal as the best available option to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, they have called on Iran to limit its regional influence and curb the missile program.

A British government spokesman defended the accord, saying in a statement: “We have never been naive about Iran and its nuclear intentions.”

“That is why the IAEA inspection regime agreed as part of the Iran nuclear deal is one of the most extensive and robust in the history of international nuclear accords,” he said.

“It remains a vitally important way of independently verifying that Iran is adhering to the deal and that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful,” the spokesman explained.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran’s top leader accused the United States of pushing Saudi Arabia into a war with Iran.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on his website that the “Americans are trying to put Saudis and some other regional countries before Iran. If they are wise, they should not be deceived by the U.S.”

Khamenei also claimed the U.S. wants to put the financial burden of confronting Iran on the shoulders of other Middle East countries but warned, “They will be hit and defeated if they confront Iran.”

He urged the U.S. to leave the Middle East, saying its military presence causes insecurity and conflict.

His remarks came amid a visit to the region by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who expressed support for Israel and Saudi Arabia and said Iran “destabilizes this entire region.”

Saudi Arabia and Iran are longtime regional rivals, who back opposing sides in the civil wars in Syria and Yemen. Iran has expanded its footprint across the region in recent years by backing Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and an array of armed groups.

Both Israel and Saudi Arabia view Iran as a regional menace and have long called for the United States to adopt a more aggressive stance toward it.