Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled Monday what he said was a "half ton" of Iranian nuclear documents, collected clandestinely by Israeli intelligence agents in January.
In the presentation, Netanyahu asserted that the materials proved that Iranian leaders covered up a military nuclear weapons program before signing a deal with world powers in 2015.
In a speech delivered in English and relying on his trademark use of visual aids, Netanyahu claimed the material showed that Iran cannot be trusted, and encouraged U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw from the deal next month.
"Iran lied big time," Netanyahu declared.
At Israel's Defense Ministry, Netanyahu stood in front of stacks of files representing what he described as a vault full of Iranian nuclear documents obtained earlier this year.
"Iran lied about never having a nuclear weapons program," he said. "One hundred thousand secret files prove it did."
"Second," he continued, "even after the deal, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons knowledge for future use."
In his presentation, Netanyahu said Israel had obtained some 55,000 pages of documents and 183 CDs containing secret files from an Iranian nuclear weapons program called "Project Amad." He said the material was gathered from a facility in the Tehran neighborhood of Shourabad in early 2018 in what he described as a "great intelligence achievement."
The uncovered filed included documents, which were presented on a screen bearing an "incriminating" label, charts, blueprints, photos and videos. Netanyahu presented one document that allegedly called for producing and testing five warheads.
"We can now prove that Project Amad was a comprehensive program to design, build and test nuclear weapons," he said. "We can also prove that Iran is secretly storing Project Amad material to use at a time of its choice to develop nuclear weapons."
He said that after the project was disbanded in 2003, its director, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, continued his work under another agency, called Sapan.
Netanyahu said the material proves the 2015 nuclear agreement, which he very vocally opposed, is a failure. He said it allows Iran to continue enriching some uranium and does not address its research efforts or development of long-range ballistic missiles.
"Iran is continually expanding the range of its ballistic missiles, its nuclear-capable missiles," Netanyahu said. "They started with 1,000 kilometers, they're now up to 2,000, roughly. They can reach Riyadh, Tel Aviv, Moscow, but they're working on far, far greater ranges. They're planning much longer range missiles to carry nuclear weapons."
"Iran continues to lie," Netanyahu added. "Just last week, Zarif said this: 'We never wanted to produce a bomb.' Again: 'We never wanted to produce a bomb.' Yes, you did. Yes, you do. And the atomic archive proves it."
He noted that Trump was weighing whether to pull the U.S. out of the nuclear deal, saying, "I am sure he will do the right thing."
At the White House, Trump praised Netanyahu's presentation and said it vindicated the president's past statements about Iran and the shortcomings of the nuclear deal, adding that recent events have "really shown that I've been 100 percent right." Although Trump was hosting Nigeria's president for a visit during Netanyahu's speech Monday, he said he watched part of it on television.
Speaking after Netanyahu's presentation, Trump told a White House news conference the nuclear deal was "a horrible agreement for the United States." He said it would let Tehran develop nuclear arms after seven years and had "proven right what Israel has done today" with Netanyahu's disclosures.
"That is just not an acceptable situation," Trump said. He declined to say whether he'll pull out of the deal on May 12 but said that even if he does, "that doesn't mean I wouldn't then negotiate a real agreement."
Trump gave Britain, France and Germany a May 12 deadline to fix what he views as the deal's flaws – its failure to address Iran's ballistic missile program, the terms by which inspectors visit suspect Iranian sites, and "sunset" clauses under which some of its terms expire – or he will reimpose U.S. sanctions. He appears likely to do so, despite heavy pressure to stay in from European allies and other parties
Both Trump and Netanyahu say the deal should address Iranian support for militants across the region and Iran's development of long-range ballistic missiles, as well as eliminate provisions that expire over the next decade.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said later that the U.S. had been aware of the documents unveiled by Netanyahu "for a while" and that he and Netanyahu had discussed them during their meeting in Tel Aviv on Sunday.
Speaking with reporters as he headed back to the U.S., Pompeo said that although the existence of Iran's nuclear arms program had been public knowledge for years, the documents provided new details about its scope and scale and prove Iran was lying when it claimed never to have been pursuing nuclear weapons.
"This will belie any notion that there wasn't a program," Pompeo said.
He issued a statement later saying Iran also lied to the six nations with which it negotiated the nuclear agreement.
"What this means is the deal was not constructed on a foundation of good faith or transparency. It was built on Iran's lies," the statement said.
Iran's deception is inconsistent with its pledge in the nuclear deal "that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons," Pompeo said, adding that the U.S. is now assessing what the documents mean for the nuclear deal.
Asked whether the information indicated a violation of the Iran nuclear agreement, Pompeo responded: "I'll leave that to lawyers. The president will ultimately have to make a determination about that too."
The White House said in a statement on Monday that information released by Israel on Iran's nuclear program provides "new and compelling details" about Tehran's efforts to develop "missile-deliverable nuclear weapons."
"These facts are consistent with what the United States has long known: Iran had a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program that it has tried and failed to hide from the world and from its own people," the White House statement said.
Tehran dismissed Netanyahu as "the boy who cried wolf", and called his presentation propaganda.
Iran has denied ever seeking nuclear weapons and accuses its arch-foe Israel of stirring up world suspicions against it.
Under the 2015 nuclear deal struck by Iran and six major powers – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States – Tehran agreed to limit its nuclear program in return for relief from U.S. and other economic sanctions.
The French ambassador to Washington, Gérard Araud, tweeted that information about past Iranian nuclear activity was, in fact, an argument in favor of the nuclear deal, not against it.
A German government spokesman said it was vital to keep the independent inspections provided for under the deal.
Some independent analysts and diplomats said Netanyahu appeared to be presenting old evidence.
A British government spokesman defended the accord, saying in a statement: "We have never been naive about Iran and its nuclear intentions."
"That is why the IAEA inspection regime agreed as part of the Iran nuclear deal is one of the most extensive and robust in the history of international nuclear accords," the spokesman added.
