(Jerusalem, Israel) -- In a dramatic presentation that was broadcast live to the nation of in prime time this evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a major coup by Israeli intelligence services.
"A few weeks ago, in a great intelligence achievement, Israel obtained half a ton of the material inside these [previously secret Iranian] vaults," he noted. "And here’s what we got. Fifty-five thousand pages. Another 55,000 files on 183 CDs."
All of the material -- some 100,000 documents, plus photos, blueprints and videos from inside Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons program -- are highly classified Iranian documents that "the world has never seen before," Netanyahu said in a speech given first in English and concluded in Hebrew.
The materials provides "new and conclusive proof of the secret nuclear weapons program that Iran has been hiding for years from the international community in its secret atomic archive."
Netanyahu explained that all of the material has been shared with -- and verified by -- the U.S. government, and will soon be shared with the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, and with other governments.
"What I’ve shown you tonight is just a fraction of the total material that we have. But even from this sample, you can draw four main conclusions," Netanyahu said.
- First, Iran lied about never having a nuclear weapons program. 100,000 secret files prove that they lied.
- Second, even after the deal, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons know-how for future use. Why would a terrorist regime hide and meticulously catalogue its secret nuclear files, if not to use them at a later date.
- Third, Iran lied again in 2015, when it didn’t come clean to the IAEA, as required by the nuclear deal.
- And finally, the Iran deal, the nuclear deal, is based on lies. It’s based on Iranian lies and Iranian deception. 100,000 files right here prove that they lied."
"So here’s the bottom line," Netanyahu noted. "Iran continues to lie. Just last week, [Iranian Foreign Minister Javad] Zarif said this : 'We never wanted to produce a bomb.' Again [repeats video clip]: 'We never wanted to produce a bomb.' Yes you did. Yes you do. And the atomic archive proves it."
Netanyahu argued that nuclear deal negotiated and championed by President Obama and other world leaders gave Iran "a clear pass to an atomic arsenal."
"It does so because it gives them the three components that are necessary to produce this arsenal," he said. "First, unlimited enrichment in a few years. And they plan to do that. They plan to have several hundred thousand advanced centrifuges with which they can enrich mountains of uranium for that core that I showed you before. For many, many such cores. Second, it completely fails to address Iran’s continued development of ballistic missiles. And third, and this is new, it completely fails to address Iran’s secret nuclear bomb program and its advanced work on weaponization. We just did."
"So this is a terrible deal," Netanyahu concluded. "It should never have been concluded. And in a few days’ time, President Trump will decide, will make a decision on what to do with the nuclear deal. I’m sure he’ll do the right thing. The right thing for the United States, the right thing for Israel and the right thing for the peace of the world."
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