Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called on world leaders Tuesday to hold Iran accountable for "lying to the world" after an earlier report by the Wall Street Journal revealed that the ayatollah regime gained access to confidential International Atomic Energy Agency reports and for two decades used them to mislead the organization and conceal suspected work on nuclear weapons.
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"After Iran stole classified documents from the UN nuclear agency, it used the information to understand what the agency was hoping to find, then fabricated a cover story and his evidence to invade a nuclear investigation," Bennett said.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the documents, which featured handwritten notes in Persian, were among the files seized by Israeli intelligence in January 2018 from a Tehran archive.
Bennett presented several documents during his remarks that implicate Iran, presumably from the archives that were seized in 2018.
"Here it says, in Persian, hundreds of pages stamped by the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. These documents even have handwritten notes by Iranian officials," including a former defense minister.
According to Bennett, one of the handwritten notes said, "Sooner or later, they [IAEA officials] will ask us, and we will need to have a comprehensive cover story for them."
The report mentioned a cover story, "and here is the same cover story [in the document]. Iran lied to the world, and is lying to the world, right at this moment. The world must make sure Iran does not get away with it without punishment," Bennett said.
Meanwhile, a report by the IAEA on Monday said that Iran has not provided satisfactory answers to its long-standing questions on the origin of uranium particles found at three undeclared sites despite a fresh push for a breakthrough.
The lack of progress could set up a new diplomatic clash with the West when the agency's 35-nation Board of Governors meets next week. If Western powers seek a resolution criticizing Tehran it could deal a further blow to stalled efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
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The fresh quarterly IAEA report detailing Iran's continued failure to provide credible answers raises pressure on the United States and its allies to take action against the regime at the board meeting, since Tehran and the IAEA announced a renewed push in March to clear things up.
"Iran has not provided explanations that are technically credible in relation to the agency's findings at those locations," the report said, adding: "The agency remains ready to engage without delay with Iran to resolve all of these matters."
A separate quarterly IAEA report said Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, close to the roughly 90% that is weapons grade and in a form that can be enriched further, is estimated to have grown by 9.9 kilograms (22 pounds) to 43.1 kilograms (95 pounds).
That amounts to slightly more than what the IAEA calls a "significant quantity," defined as "the approximate amount of nuclear material for which the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear explosive device cannot be excluded".
