Image caption
Mr Netanyahu sees a nuclear-armed Iran as the greatest threat to world peace
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed what he says are “secret nuclear files” proving Iran covertly pursued nuclear weapons.
He said thousands of pages of material obtained by Israel showed Iran had deceived the world by denying it had ever sought nuclear weapons.
Iran agreed in 2015 to curb its nuclear energy programme in return for the lifting of sanctions.
It maintained that it had only been pursuing nuclear energy.
Tweeting earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif appeared to accuse Mr Netanyahu of “fooling people”.
US President Donald Trump has long threatened to scrap the deal, which was reached under his predecessor, Barack Obama.
European powers have said they are committed to upholding the accord.
Could the nuclear deal collapse?
Why the bomb is back
What ‘proof’ did Netanyahu produce?
Speaking in English from Israel’s defence ministry in Tel Aviv, Mr Netanyahu showed off what he said were “exact copies” of documents obtained by Israeli intelligence from a secret storage facility in Tehran.
There were, he said, 55,000 pages of evidence and a further 55,000 files on 183 CDs.
“Here’s what the files included: incriminating documents, incriminating charts, incriminating presentations, incriminating blueprints, incriminating photos, incriminating videos and more,” he said.
“These files conclusively prove that Iran was brazenly lying when it said it never had a nuclear weapons programme,” he added.
The files had been shared with the US, Mr Netanyahu said, and would be submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
How was the 2015 deal meant to work?
The agreement signed between Iran and six world powers lifted crippling economic sanctions in return for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
There had been fears that Iran would use the programme to create a nuclear weapon.
Under the deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran is committed to slashing the number of its centrifuges, which are machines used to enrich uranium.
It is also meant to cut its stockpile of enriched uranium drastically and not enrich remaining uranium to the level needed to produce nuclear weapons.
The number of centrifuges installed at Iran’s Natanz and Fordo sites was cut drastically soon after the deal while tonnes of low-enriched uranium were shipped to Russia.
Furthermore, monitors from the IAEA have been able to carry out snap inspections at Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran nuclear deal: Key details
How dangerous is the enmity between Israel and Iran?
Tension between the long-standing enemies has grown steadily since Iran built up its military presence in Syria, Israel’s north-eastern neighbour.
Iran has also been accused of supplying weaponry to Lebanese Shia Muslim militant group Hezbollah, an enemy of Israel, and also smuggling arms to Palestinian militants.
Mr Netanyahu vowed last year to stop Iran “establishing itself militarily in Syria”.
Former FBI director James B. Comey on Sunday called the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election “a wreck” and deemed its report a “political document.”
In a conversation about his book, “A Higher Loyalty,” on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Comey said the report, released by House Republicans on Friday, did not represent his “understanding of what the facts were” before he left the FBI. Comey was fired by President Trump in May.
“The most important piece of work is the one the special counsel is doing now,” Comey told anchor Chuck Todd. “This [the House committee report] strikes me as a political document.”
Comey said he did not think that the House Intelligence Committee served a useful investigative purpose with regard to the probe of Russia’s influence operation.
Partisanship “wrecked the committee,” he said. “And it damaged relationships with the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] court, the intelligence communities. It’s just a wreck.”
Trump has praised the report, saying it proved that “there’s no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded, coordinated or conspired with Russia.” Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released a rebuttal to the report and charged that their Republican colleagues ended their work prematurely in a “systematic effort to muddy the waters and to deflect attention away from the President.”
The redacted version of the committee’s final report accuses the intelligence community of “significant intelligence tradecraft failings.” It details contacts among Trump campaign officials, Russians and Russian intermediaries but concludes that investigators found “no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the Russian government.”
The report also accused the FBI of failures in how the bureau responded to Russian interference in the 2016 election. The Senate Intelligence Committee is pursuing its own investigation.
Trump and Comey continue to snipe at each other publicly. During an appearance Thursday on “Fox and Friends,” Trump called him “leaking, lying Comey.” In a tweet on Friday, Trump called Comey “either very sick or very dumb.” At a campaign rally in Michigan on Saturday night, Trump referred to Comey and “the way he lies. “
“I did you a great favor when I fired this guy,” Trump told his supporters at the rally.
In response to a question from Todd about whether Trump would be a credible witness in the special counsel’s Russia investigation, Comey said, “I have serious doubts about his credibility.”
