Israel announced on Tuesday that it had proof that Iran stole sensitive documents from the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency over two decades ago and used them to hide its nuclear programmes from international inspectors.
The documents appear to demonstrate that Iran was spying on the inspectors and seeking to anticipate and respond to any claims of malfeasance, but there is no indication that it was pursuing nuclear weapons. Israel has been pressuring the United States and other international powers not to rebuild the shattered nuclear deal with Iran.
The materials were distributed to the media by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. They come from a cache of Iranian nuclear files acquired by Israel in 2018 but never made public, according to his office.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the documents last week, saying it had obtained them from a Middle East intelligence agency” in a country opposed to Iran’s nuclear program.
Bennett claimed he was distributing the documents in reaction to remarks made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who dismissed the charges as lies. ” The foreign minister referred to earlier instances when Israel has provided dire warnings that Iran was poised to build nuclear weapons that did not come to pass.
Spreading false information? Please, don’t make me laugh. Bennett remarked in a video distributed to the media, “I’m holding the proof of your falsehoods right here in my hands.” The Persian-language documents, which could not be verified right away, appear to be stamped with official stamps, some of which say “secret.”
After Iran stole classified documents from the U.N.’s atomic agency, Iran used that information to figure out what the atomic agency was hoping to find, and then created cover stories and hid evidence to evade their nuclear probes,” Bennett said.
Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes. U.S. intelligence agencies, Western nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency have said Iran ran an organized nuclear weapons program until 2003.
Israel views Iran as its greatest threat and was virulently opposed to the 2015 nuclear agreement signed by Iran and world powers, saying it did not contain enough safeguards to keep Iran from developing a weapons capability or address other Iranian military threats in the region. It welcomed the Trump administration’s decision to unilaterally withdraw from that deal, causing its collapse, and is opposed to U.S. efforts to revive the accord.
Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East. It has never publicly acknowledged having such weapons.
One of the documents shared by Israel, a purported Iranian intelligence memo from 2004, says 27 pages of classified IAEA documents are being sent to prepare for an inspection of Iran’s Arak heavy water nuclear reactor. The reactor produces plutonium as a byproduct, which can be used for nuclear weapons. The memo says the documents were obtained using intelligence methods.
(With inputs from agencies)
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