TEHRAN - Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the non-proliferation program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), says that “The documents that Prime Minister Netanyahu displaced on 30 April did not reveal anything that was already known by the IAEA.”

“I think Netanyahu’s presentation makes it certain that Trump will not continue to waive sanctions as required under the JCPOA,” Fitzpatrick told the Tehran Times in an exclusive interview.

Following is the full text of the interview:

Q: Do the documents released by Netanyahu include any new details about Iran's nuclear deal? As you know Olli Heinonen the ex-Deputy Director General of the IAEA provided these documents to the Board of Governors in a confidential session back in 2008. So, the recent information couldn’t provide anything new.

A: The documents that Prime Minister Netanyahu displaced on 30 April did not reveal anything that was already known by the IAEA. But for course he only showed a few documents.  It is entirely possible that the “archived documents” include new information.  The IAEA will need to look at them, to see if there is new information.
  The new information in Netanyahu’s presentation was that Iran had meticulously archived all of the information about its past nuclear weapons development and transferred documents to a warehouse in Tehran in 2007.  This information gives a very bad impression about Iran’s intentions.

Q: According to IAEA inspection team, the so-called Amad plan was stopped abruptly by Tehran in late 2003. So, why does Netanyahu revive a scenario already rejected by IAEA?

A: The key point that Netanyahu stressed is that Iran consistently lied in claiming that it did not have a nuclear weapons program. This is nothing new.  The language of the IAEA report in December 2015 was more diplomatic, of course.  It did not outright say that Iran had lied, but it concluded that there were military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program said that some of the activities continued after 2003.  Now it is important to know what activities continued after 2003.

Q: As the White House assessed the newly released documents were authentic, shall we think of Netanyahu’s claims as a prelude to trump's withdrawal from JCPOA?

A: Yes, I think Netanyahu’s presentation makes it certain that Trump will not continue to waive sanctions as required under the JCPOA. The visual impression about all of these documents about nuclear weapons development archived by Iran for possible future use is too damning.  This material break will mean America’s effective withdrawal from the accord.

Q: Netanyahu claims that Iran isn't complying with nuclear deal. Now the question is which one has the right to assess Iran’s compliance or violation, Israel or IAEA?
A: Any country has the right to draw its own conclusions, for its national purposes. For international purposes, the IAEA has a mandated role to judge whether Iran is living up to its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA, and so far the IAEA has concluded that the answer is yes.  The documents Israel claims to possess will have to be examined to see if they contain any information about nuclear activity in violation of the agreement.