Israeli intelligence operatives obtained “Iran’s secret nuclear files,” according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the documents prove that Iran lied to international monitors about the scope of its nuclear weapons program before and after the signing of the 2015 nuclear agreement.
“Iran lied, big time,” Netanyahu said in a Monday night address to Israelis. “This atomic archive clearly shows that Iran planned, at the highest levels, to continue work related to nuclear weapons under different guises and using the same personnel.”
Netanyahu said Iran hid its the files in Tehran, and that Israel has obtained 55,000 pages outlining the program, along with 55,000 files on 183 CDs. He said the documents chronicled Iran’s pursuit of the ability to create a nuclear warhead that could be placed on a ballistic missile.
His dramatic announcement was made just two weeks before President Trump must decide whether to leave or remain in the Iran nuclear deal, an unabashed effort to convince Trump to scrap the pact.
“The Iran deal, the nuclear deal, is based on lies,” Netanyahu said after describing the contents of the information Israel found about Iran’s past program. “It’s based on Iranian lies and Iranian deception. One hundred thousand files, right here, prove that they lied.”
The archive shows Iran’s plan to retain the ability to jumpstart it’s nuclear weapons program “at a time of its choice,” he said, contrary to recent denials of ever operating such a program. And he emphasized that Iran was obligated to “come clean” about the history of the program as a condition for entering the nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Most of the documents that Netanyahu discussed pertained to a “Project Amad,” a nuclear weapons program that was sidelined in response to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Netanyahu unveiled them with a flourish at Israel’s Ministry of Defense, showing slides that he said were exact copies of documents stolen from Iran. “After signing the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran intensified its efforts to hide its secret nuclear files,” he said. “In 2017, Iran moved its nuclear weapons files to a highly secret location in Tehran . . . Few Iranians knew where it was, very few. And also a few Israelis.”
Alumni of former President Barack Obama’s administration cast doubt on the Netanyahu’s credibility. “Let’s see what this is. But this sure has an eerie pre-2003 Iraq vibe to it,” Colin Kahl, who served as Vice President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, tweeted before the speech.
Netanyahu said the archive has been shared with American officials. “The United States can vouch for its authenticity,” Netanyahu said of the cache.
Netanyahu also noted that Trump has a pending decision to make.
“I’m sure he’ll do the right thing,” he said.
This story was corrected to fix an editor’s error indicating Netanyahu was talking about a current nuclear weapons program, when he was talking about a prior program.
