White House Quietly Issues Stunning Correction to Statement Claiming Iran ‘Has’ Nuclear Weapons Program

The White House made a pretty massive correction to one of its statements on Monday, after falsely claiming Iran “has” a nuclear weapons program, in response to Israel’s announcement on the country’s alleged development of nuclear weapons.

The initial statement, sent out to reporters in an email from the Office of the Press Secretary, stated the claims made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “are consistent with what the United States has long known.”

“Iran has a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program that it has tried and failed to hide from the world and from its own people,” the statement read initially. “The Iranian regime has shown it will use destructive weapons against its neighbors and others. Iran must never have nuclear weapons.”

And then, as pointed out by a number of stunned reporters on Twitter, a fairly significant correction was made to the statement posted on the White House website.

“Iran has a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program,” was changed to “Iran had a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program.”

According to NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, the White House blamed the mistake on a “clerical error.”

White House fixess Iran nuke statement on website blames misstatement about Iran’s compliance with nuclear deal on clerical error. Statement originally said Iran HAS a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program now says Iran HAD a clandestine nuclear weapons program. Really

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) May 1, 2018

The initial White House statement, of course, could be used to undermine the Iran nuclear deal, by claiming the Iranian government was no longer in compliance.

They say it was a “clerical” error. How does a statement of this import, putting the White House at odds with the entire U.S. intelligence community, get sent out so carelessly? And why did they correct it on the website but not issue a new statement? https://t.co/keIYugLH1p

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) May 1, 2018

The New York Times’ Max Fisher initially rebuked The White House for their tweet claiming the Iranian regime has a nuclear program, noting even Netanyahu conceded work on the weapons program had ended.

This statement is a lie. Even Netanyahu’s own presentation repeatedly concedes the evidence that Iranian work on its nuclear weapons program ended years ago. I can’t be clearer: the Trump administration is lying. https://t.co/ppd6wOYEy9

— Max Fisher (@Max_Fisher) April 30, 2018

They’ve wordlessly edited the press release on their website from “Iran has a nuclear weapons program” to “Iran had a nuclear weapons program.” Quite big difference actually! https://t.co/Mduah6FKAi pic.twitter.com/MgNZb2F2Xm

— Max Fisher (@Max_Fisher) May 1, 2018

Looking forward to Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ explanation of this mess…

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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Follow Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) on Twitter

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