- Israeli PM says Iran moved materials to a secret location
TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed new “dramatic” intelligence on Monday which he claimed shows Iran is “brazenly lying” about its nuclear weapons programme and moved materials to a secret location, showing the country is not complying with the vaunted nuclear deal it signed in 2015.
The information was obtained within the past 10 days, Israeli officials told Fox News. Netanyahu said the files were moved to a “highly secret” location in Tehran after the deal was signed, and contained materials spread over 55,000 pages and 55,000 files on 183 CD’s.
“These files conclusively prove that Iran is brazenly lying when it says it never had a nuclear weapons programme,” he said.
Netanyahu briefed President Trump about the intelligence on Saturday and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday. European counterparts were being made aware Monday prior to the speech.
Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire to exit the Iran nuke deal, which was signed during the Obama administration. And though he has yet to end it, a crucial deadline for re-certifying the deal is on the horizon.
Netanyahu’s statement came on the heels of a missile attack in northern Syria that killed nearly 26-pro-government fighters, mostly Iranians, according to a Syria war monitoring group. Israel had no comment on the strike, but there was widespread speculation that Israel was behind it. Tehran has sent thousands of Iran-backed fighters to back Assad’s forces in Syria’s seven-year civil war.
Israel and Iran are arch-enemies, and Israel has said repeatedly it would not allow Iran to establish a permanent military presence in Syria. Iran, which is backing the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has accused Israel of carrying out another airstrike in Syria this month that killed seven Iranian military advisers and vowed revenge.