US denies Iran nuclear deal document was kept secret

The US State Department denied a document revealing Iran’s ability to go nuclear sooner than originally understood was secret, even though the public was not made aware of its existence.

The US State Department has denied the existence of a secret document in the Iranian nuclear deal that outlines how Iran would be able to produce a nuclear weapon more quickly by ramping up its uranium enrichment after the year 2027.

“There is no secret document or secret deal,” US State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said.

Instead, Toner said the document “appears to be Iran’s long-term enrichment R&D plan that was submitted by Iran to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) as part of its initial Addition Protocol declaration.”

Toner added that the Iran deal “explicitly refers to this document,” and that its substance was made available to the US Congress “on multiple occasions” before and after the deal.

On Monday, The Associated Press obtained a document which was the only part of the nuclear deal that was not made public last year. The document outlines how key restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program will ease in slightly more than a decade, which will cut the time Tehran needs to produce a nuclear weapon from a year to six months.

The document says that as of January 2027 — a date which will mark 11 years after the implementation early this year of the deal, reached last July between Tehran and world powers — Iran will start replacing its mainstay centrifuges with thousands of advanced machines.

Centrifuges churn out uranium to levels that can range from use as reactor fuel and for medical and research purposes to much higher levels for the core of a nuclear warhead. From year 11 to 13, says the document, Iran will install centrifuges up to five times as efficient as the 5,060 machines it is now restricted to using.

By: JNS.org and World Israel News Staff

IAEAIranIran nuclear dealMark Toner