Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's presentation on Monday, in which he described the lengths to which Iran was lying about its nuclear program, was based on intelligence gathered in a daring Mossad raid, The New York Times reported Monday, citing a senior Israeli official.
In his presentation on Monday, which included reproductions of the seized documents and files, Netanyahu said Iran made sure that the archives from its nuclear program were moved to a nondescript place so as to obscure its importance, which he described as "a dilapidated warehouse."
Netanyahu said, "Few Iranians knew where it was, very few."
He said Iran's efforts to hold on to its nuclear expertise demonstrate that Tehran never abandoned its aspirations of becoming a nuclear power and that it brazenly lied to the International Atomic Energy Agency, even after it vowed to come clean.
This, Netanyahu said, violated the terms of the 2015 deal Tehran struck with the international community, in which Iran promised it would not seek a military nuclear program.
The senior Israeli official said that the Mossad identified the warehouse in February 2016 and maintained surveillance on the location. According to the official, operatives broke into the building in January and "removed the original documents and smuggled them back to Israel the same night."
Ultimately, the information seized was enough to produce over 55,000 printed pages and 183 compact discs.
The official told The New York Times that U.S. President Donald Trump "was informed of the operation by the Mossad chief, Yossi Cohen, on a visit to Washington in January."
The report said the delay in presenting the information was a result of the time it took to translate the seized materials.
