Iran nuclear deal: Benjamin Netanyahu claims Israel has obtained 'secret files' showing Tehran still trying to develop weapons

Many experts believe Mr Netanyahu revealed nothing new

Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed Israel has obtained “Iran’s secret files” which reveal it is still covertly pursuing nuclear weapons – an allegation that would place Tehran in breach of the 2015 nuclear deal.

In a televised primetime address, large parts of which were delivered in English, the Israeli prime minister claimed his country had obtained 55,000 pages of Iranian documents relating to something called Protect Amad. He said the documents had been kept in “massive safes” and that it has all five elements of a nuclear weapons programme.

In an address that was clearly designed for international consumption, and in particular those in the US who would have Donald Trump quit the 2015 nuclear deal, Mr Netanyahu, a national security hawk, said the information had been shared with both Washington and the International Atomic Energy Agency for verification. Iran has always denied trying to develop such weapons.

“Iran’s leaders repeatedly deny ever pursuing nuclear weapons,” said Mr Netanyahu, who claimed Israel had obtained “half a ton” of Iranian documents. “Tonight I’m here to tell you one thing: Iran lied.”

He added: “After signing the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran intensified its efforts to hide its secret files. In 2017 Iran moved its nuclear weapons files to a highly secret location in Tehran.”

Despite Mr Netanyahu’s dramatic presentation, a number of experts have questioned whether he was revealing anything new. “Netanyahu is telling us something we already knew – that Iran had a nuclear weapons programme,” Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Programme at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said on Twitter.

Mr Lewis told The Independent the information had been available before. “This is why we had the deal with Iran,” he said.

And Reuters said that despite the Israeli prime minister’s claims, Washington had concluded Iran was not in breach of the 2015 deal, according to two officials who were cited anonymously.

“We have seen no new and credible evidence that Iran is violating the agreement, wether in the prime minister’s remarks today or from other sources,” said one of the officials.

Israel itself has never admitted to having a nuclear arsenal, although it is widely believed to possess such weapons. Successive governments have repeatedly refused to discuss the issue.

Mr Netanyahu’s address, which was accompanied by graphics and video footage, comes as Mr Trump has until 12 May to decide whether or not to pull the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was brokered by seven parties and signed in 2015.

Last week, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel, met with Mr Trump in Washington and urged him to remain part of the deal. Mr Macron even suggested creating an additional framework to be added to the deal to address what Mr Trump had referred to as “terrible flaws”.

Mr Netanyahu has shared Mr Trump’s scorn for the deal agreed with Iran. In March 2015, having been invited by Republicans on Capitol Hill, he condemned the deal that Barack Obama was about to sign on behalf of the US. “This is a bad deal – a very bad deal,” Mr Netanyahu said. “We’re better off without it.”

The news agency said that during Mr Netanyahu’s speech on Monday evening, while much of the briefing focused on what he said was past nuclear work and alleged obfuscation about it by Iran, he also asserted that such activities had continued after the 2015 deal intended to curb Iranian capabilities.

“After signing the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran intensified its efforts to hide its secret files,” he said. “In 2017 Iran moved its nuclear weapons files to a highly secret location in Tehran.”

Mr Netanyahu, who met for two hours over the weekend with US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, referred to a secret Iranian nuclear project, codenamed “Amad”, which he said had been shelved in 2003, but he said work in the field had continued.

“Even after the (2015) deal, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons knowledge for future use,” he said.

Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons. Ahead of the Israeli prime minister’s speech, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, mocked the Israeli leader by tweeting a photo of Mr Netanyahu’s famous 2012 UN speech in which he used a cartoon-like drawing of a bomb to rail against Iran’s nuclear programme.

“The boy who can’t stop crying wolf is at it again,“ said Mr Zarif. “Undeterred by cartoon fiasco at UNGA. You can only fool some of the people so many times.”

After the speech, the semi-official Fars news agency, believed to be close to the hardline Revolutionary Guard, dismissed Mr Netanyahu’s speech as a “propaganda show”.

Mr Netanyahu concluded his speech with what amounted to a direct address to Washington.

“In a few days President Trump will make a decision on the Iran nuclear deal,” he said. “I am sure he will do the right thing for the United States, the right thing for Israel and the right thing for the world.”

In Washington, at a press conference at the White House, with Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Trump praised Mr Netanyahu’s presentation and said that it, along with other recent events, showed he had been “100 per cent right” about Iran.

He said he watched part of Mr Netanyahu’s presentation and that it was “good”. He said Iran’s behaviour was “just not an acceptable situation”.

He again repeated comments he made last week that if he decides to withdraw the US from the 2015 deal, he would not rule out negotiating a new one