Netanyahu: Iran is pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented what he called "documents and evidence" of Iran's secret nuclear advancements and "deception of the world" by Tehran during a press conference at the Ministry of Defense on Monday evening, April 29. According to Netanyahu, these documents "decisively" prove that Iran continues to "shamelessly deceive" the international community and has moved its nuclear program to hidden locations outside of known Iranian nuclear sites after the JCPOA. The Israeli Prime Minister stated that in this secret program, the design, construction, and testing of nuclear warheads have been pursued over the past three years. He added that the goal of this secret plan is to build nuclear warheads, each with a power equivalent to five nuclear bombs with ten kilotons of TNT, which fell on Hiroshima, and these warheads were intended to be mounted on Shahab-3 ballistic missiles to "be fired towards Tel Aviv." Netanyahu said Iran was preparing all the requirements for the "Imad project" so that it would be ready to build a nuclear weapon whenever it wanted. He noted that Iran's missiles started with a range of one thousand kilometers and now reach two thousand kilometers, putting Riyadh, Tel Aviv, and Moscow within range, but Iran continues to work on extending the range of its missiles. He emphasized that his country obtained "over half a ton of evidence," including 55,000 documents on 183 CDs, from Iran's secret nuclear research in the project known as "Imad" a few weeks ago. The CDs and files were displayed in cabinets next to Netanyahu in front of representatives of Israeli and international media. The Israeli Prime Minister did not mention how his country accessed the "complete archive of Iran's secret nuclear program," but called it "a major intelligence achievement" of something "the world has never seen before." According to Israeli media reports, these documents were obtained by Mossad, the country's intelligence and special operations agency, and the effort to access them was a specific order from Yossi Cohen, the head of Mossad. Behind Netanyahu, on a black screen at the Israeli Ministry of Defense, short films of statements by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, Hassan Rouhani, the President, and Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian Foreign Minister, were shown; in these films, these Iranian officials denied their country's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. However, the Israeli Prime Minister, especially after Zarif's statements in his foreign interviews, said, "You are lying." Netanyahu referred to the name and image of Iran's "nuclear scientist" Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who has long been hidden behind Iran's atomic activities and is sanctioned by the international community. According to Netanyahu, "very few Iranians knew the new hideout of Iran's nuclear program in 'Shourabad'" and "even fewer Israelis had heard this name" because it is a very simple and obscure location. The Israeli Prime Minister stated that these documents should convince the international community that Iran has continued its deception, and therefore the world must "make the right decision." He said his country has provided these documents to the United States, and now the U.S. can confirm the truth of these documents. Netanyahu added that Israel will also give this evidence to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Israeli Prime Minister's action came 12 days before the deadline for U.S. President Donald Trump's decision on the JCPOA. Trump had stated on January 12 that the "catastrophic flaws" of the JCPOA must be addressed; the four-month deadline to meet the demands of the U.S. and Israel ends on May 12. Israeli media reported that people were worried about the possibility of war between Israel and Iran ahead of the Prime Minister's statement, but officials assured that there was no talk of war. Nevertheless, the Tel Aviv stock market faced a decline in stock values on Monday afternoon. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, ahead of the publication of the Prime Minister's statements, likened him to a child who cries wolf in the story of the boy who cried wolf, writing that only a few people can be misled multiple times. Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, stated on Monday that his country has a higher capacity for uranium enrichment, but he expressed hope that Trump would extend the U.S. commitment to the JCPOA.