Britain has never been naive about Iran’s nuclear programme, and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are vital to ensure it is used for peaceful means, a government spokesman said on Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped up pressure on the United States to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, holding a primetime address on Israeli TV to present what he called evidence of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons programme.“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,” a British government spokesman said in a statement. It remains a vitally important way of independently verifying that Iran is adhering to the deal and that Iran’s nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful.”
