Iran reached a secret agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July to bypass a future renegotiated nuclear deal over its reported illicit atomic weapons program, enabling Moscow to return Tehran’s enriched uranium, according to a media report.

The International Atomic Energy Agency last week said it had located uranium particles at Iran’s underground Fordo site that were enriched to 83.7% purity, which is near weapons-grade material for an atomic weapon.

On Sunday, Fox News said it had been told by a foreign intelligence source: “As part of the agreement between the two countries, Russia has undertaken to return all the enriched uranium to Iran as quickly as possible if, for any reason, the US withdraws from the agreement.”

In response, the US State Department said: “We will not comment on purported secret intelligence reports, but in any event, the JCP­OA has not been on the agenda for months.”

The JCPOA is an abbreviation of the formal name, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, for the atomic deal between the major powers – the US, France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia – and Iran’s regime.

Iranian technicians work at a uranium processing site in Isfahan. (credit: REUTERS)

According to the intelligence source, “President Putin, who made a special trip to Iran to pursue weapons deals between the two countries, agreed to approve the request, apparently due to his interest in compensating the Iranians for their assistance,” the report said.

The deal would make the JCPOA deal pointless

The attempt by Iran and Russia to circumvent the JCPOA would largely dismantle the point of the nuclear deal, namely, to stop Tehran from using its enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon.

“This would significantly undermine US interests and would give Russia de facto control over the nuclear agreement in the present and future,” the intelligence source said, according to the report.

Iran’s UN Mission denied that there was a secret deal with Russia. Iran is currently supplying Russia with lethal drone technology in its war against Ukraine. It is unclear if the secret enriched-uranium deal between Russia and Iran, which unfolded in July and August, is a quid pro quo for Tehran’s military assistance to Moscow.

The secret Iran-Russia pact was approved by Putin when he visited Tehran in July 2022, according to foreign intelligence sources that Fox News cited.

The JCPOA has been engulfed in enormous controversy since it was implemented by the Obama administration and other world powers in 2015. The Trump administration withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 because it said the Iran deal does not impede Tehran from developing an atomic bomb.

According to Saeed Ghasseminejad, a Foundation for Defense of Democracies Iran expert, “The new nuclear deal would allow Tehran to access up to $275 billion in financial benefits during its first year in effect and $1 trillion by 2030.”

Israel and critics of the JCPOA argue that Iran’s clerical state can use the financial benefits due to sanctions relief to fund terrorism and expand its missile program. The US State Department has repeatedly classified Iran’s regime as the world’s worst international state sponsor of terrorism.

In a 2022 article on the website of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) titled “The Iran Nuclear Negotiations: Five Shams and One Truth,” Middle East experts Yigal Carmon and M. Reiter said: “For many years, the West has been trying to prevent – and later slow down – Iran’s efforts to become a nuclear power. Everybody knows that Iran wants nuclear weapons; thus, the very idea of negotiations is farcical. Within the big farce that is the JCPOA, there are four specific shams that fully expose it for what it is.”

According to the authors, sham No. 5 is: “The West is negotiating for an agreement even though its sunset clauses begin taking effect within a few months… Even if Iran were a trustworthy negotiations partner, even if the fatwa existed, even if the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] could enforce Section T [of the JCPOA], and even if anybody knew where the 8.5 tons of enriched uranium had disappeared to – the nuclear negotiations are still meaningless, since the sunset clauses begin taking effect in 2023.”

Iran’s regime claims Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa banning nuclear weapons. Critics, including MEMRI, have debunked the claim that Khamenei’s fatwa exists.

In 2017, two nuclear-program experts, David Albright and Olli Heinonen, wrote a technical article for the US-based Institute for Science and International Security about Section T of the JCPOA.

“One of the most serious compliance issues concerns the IAEA’s access to military sites and credible verification of Section T, which prohibits key nuclear weapons development activities and controls dual-use equipment potentially usable in such activities,” they wrote.

According to the MEMRI article, “The JCPOA required Iran’s 8.5-ton inventory of enriched uranium to be transferred to Russia to be kept in its custody, but in reality, the uranium disappeared, evading IAEA oversight, as attested at a House of Representatives hearing by the Obama State Department’s Iran coordinator Stephen Mull.”

“The One Truth” about the Iranian’s regime reported illegal nuclear weapons program is: “The only time Iran stepped back and truly halted its nuclear program was in 2003 when US forces were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the MEMRI analysis concluded.

A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip fell within the territory’s borders, triggering rocket sirens in the southern Israeli kibbutz Nir Am early on Wednesday morning, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

The rocket fire followed an IDF raid in Jenin on Tuesday in which six Palestinians were killed – including Hamas operative Abdel Fattah Hussain Harusha, the terrorist who killed Hillel and Ya’acov Yaniv in a shooting attack in Huwara last week – and 26 were wounded.

Harusha had recently been released from prison after spending eight months there for his part in a conspiracy to plan a terror attack.

IDF on high alert following rocket launch, West Bank violence

Following Wednesday morning’s failed rocket launch, the Israeli military is preparing for the possibility that Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem will attempt to carry out terror attacks as “revenge” for the IDF raid in Jenin, as per Maariv.

An Israeli Helicopter seen during a Military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin on March 7, 2023 (credit: NASSER ISHTAYEH/FLASH90)

The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday that Israeli settlers clashed with Palestinians in Huwara and at least five Palestinians were injured, a week after settlers had rioted in the village, destroying property and injuring hundreds of people.

50 Palestinians threw stones at Israeli cars in the town, according to Israeli residents.