Former Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton warned Tuesday that "there is a substantial risk" Iran is operating secret nuclear facilities that will not be subject to IAEA inspections as part of the nuclear deal announced last week.
"I think they’re already in violation of this treaty," Bolton said. "That would comport with their behavior in the past. They’ve been planning for it for years. I believe they have facilities we simply don’t know about—at least there’s a very substantial risk of that."
Iran has in the past attempted to shield its nuclear program from Western eyes by building facilities deep in mountains, where they cannot be attacked or observed.
Bolton maintains that Iran’s leadership is devoted to building nuclear weapons, but is willing to play nice for a few years to get relief from the crippling sanctions regime put in place by the United States and U.N. over the course of decades.
"In the near term they’re going to be Miss Goody Two-Shoes in Tehran," Bolton said. "They want the IAEA to say we can’t find any military applications, and that’s probably what they’ll get. They want the sanctions lifted and then it’s back to business as usual."
The Iran deal will give the Islamic republic access to global financial markets and $150 billion in previously frozen assets.