Commenting on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s threats to introduce unprecedented sanctions against Tehran, eminent independent investigative journalist Gareth Porter has blamed Washington for trying to tarnish Iran’s image in terms of peaceful atomic development.
Prominent independent investigative journalist Gareth Porter, author of the book “Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare,” underlined in a written interview with Sputnik that “the whole Iran crisis being recreated by the Trump administration is based on a pyramid of lies.”
He recalled that in his book he specifically depicted “how the Bush administration gladly fell for a disinformation campaign by Israel using a set of fabricated documents to show that Iran had tried to mate a nuclear weapon with its Shahab-3 missile.”
“We know they were fabricated because the drawings in question showed a reentry vehicle shape that we now know Iran’s Defense Ministry had abandoned years before those drawings were dated, according to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency],” Porter said.
He also recalled that both former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei and his predecessor Hans Blix voiced doubts about the “‘false evidence’ [of Tehran obtaining a nuclear weapon] that remain at the center of the [Iran] crisis.”
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On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to slap the strongest sanctions in history against Tehran, which he said would make Iran battle to “keep its economy alive.”
His statement comes a few weeks after President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). He also promised to reinstate the sanctions against Iran that were lifted as a result of the agreement.
The JCPOA, which was inked on June 14, 2015, envisages gradual lifting of the anti-Iranian economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran curbing its nuclear program and allowing inspections to ensure that the nature of the program is purely peaceful.
The views and opinions expressed by Gareth Porter are those of the analyst and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
Reprinted from Sputnik News.
