Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel is not seeking war with Iran, speaking one day after unveiling evidence that the Islamic republic has – despite its adamant denials – pursued a nuclear weapons program.
The revelation comes as U.S. President Donald Trump considers whether to withdraw the United States from the nuclear deal signed between Iran and six major powers in 2015.
Trump's decision is expected on May 12 and it is widely believed that unless Britain, France and Germany present him with significant revisions to the deal, he will pull out of it.
Asked if Israel is prepared to go to war against Iran over the issue, Netanyahu told CNN, "Nobody's seeking that kind of development. Iran is the one that's changing the rules in the region."
Netanyahu accused Iran of "brazenly lying" over its nuclear ambitions, saying that had world powers had the information revealed Monday back in 2015, they would not have signed the deal.
He said the trove of documents Israel obtained showed Iran had no intention of sticking to its commitments in the 2015 deal.
"They [the Iranians] don't want the world to know what I showed the world," he said.
Asked about the International Atomic Energy Agency's contention that the information was not new, Netanyahu replied, "No one had better intelligence on Iran than Israel."
He said the documents provide a wealth of new information.
"When we got this trove of 100,000 documents, we learned so many things we didn't know. We're still learning them," he said.
"We learned an enormous amount about Iran's secret nuclear program. Now, the deal that everybody is talking about was premised on the fact that Iran had no such material. But Iran bothered, took enormous pains after the nuclear deal and before, but especially after, to hide this information. It's like an arsenal of knowledge."
Netanyahu stressed that the fact that Iran was not officially in breach of the 2015 deal did not lend the agreement credibility, as "it was based on a lie."
Hope that the deal would make Iran a modern nation that aspires for peace were also false, he warned, saying that since signing the deal in 2015, Iran has become an even bigger exporter of terrorism to the region.
The deal all but assures Iran's path to nuclear weapons, he said.
In the interview Tuesday, Netanyahu refused to discuss Israel's alleged nuclear capabilities.
"One thing is clear: Israel is not threatening the annihilation of any country," Netanyahu said.
"Preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons is one of the things that will assure peace in the world and the Middle East."
Speaking to Fox News, he said, "This regime, the pre-eminent terrorist regime of our time, in which its goons chant 'Death to America, death to Israel,' this regime had a secret nuclear weapons program and they're trying under a very bad deal to get a nuclear arsenal."
Netanyahu said the nuclear deal would need "a major overhaul," but that Trump would have to make that decision.
"I trust his [Trump's] judgment. He'll do the right thing," the prime minister said.
A senior Israeli official said Netanyahu had informed Trump at their March 5 meeting in Washington about the evidence seized by the Mossad, Israel's national intelligence agency, in what has been lauded as a great intelligence achievement.
U.S. and Israeli officials said the information showed Iran had lied about its past work to develop nuclear weapons, but intelligence experts said there was no "smoking gun" showing that Iran had violated the nuclear deal under which it curbed its atomic program in return for relief from economic sanctions.
Iran, which has always said its nuclear program was strictly for peaceful means, dismissed Netanyahu as "the boy who cried wolf," and called his presentation propaganda.
Trump agreed at the March meeting that Israel would publish the information before the May 12 deadline, the Israeli official said.
Word of the consultations between Trump and Netanyahu serves to underscore perceptions of a coordinated bid by both leaders to bury the international agreement, which Trump has called "horrible" and Netanyahu has termed "terrible."
Others briefed on the material in March included then-CIA chief and now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and former White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials warned that the recent friction between Israel and Iran could escalate into war.
Amid Iran's growing involvement in Syria, and in the wake of Netanyahu's dramatic speech Monday, officials in Washington increasingly believe Israel is preparing for a broad military operation, perhaps even war, against Iran.
"On the list of the potential for most likely live hostility around the world, the battle between Israel and Iran in Syria is at the top of the list right now," one senior U.S. official told NBC.
Three other U.S. officials told NBC that Israeli F-15 fighter jets hit the base in Hama Sunday night after Iran delivered weapons there, including surface-to-air missiles.
Israel has refrained from commenting on the strike.
Also according to the NBC report, over the past two weeks, Iran has increased military cargo flights to Syria, carrying small arms, ammunition and surface-to-air missiles that two U.S. officials believe are meant both to shore up Iranian ground forces and to strike at Israel.
Mattis said Monday that he spoke at length with Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman about the menacing Iranian presence in Syria during Lieberman's visit to the Pentagon last week.
