Israeli premier publishes classified UN atomic agency documents allegedly stolen by Iran

By Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) - The Israeli prime minister on Tuesday published documents allegedly testifying that Iran stole the UN atomic agency's classified record and evaded probes by the watchdog.

Naftali Bennett shared on Twitter a link to files he claimed to be stolen International Atomic Energy Agency documents, along with Persian-language Iranian records. He also posted a video in which he is holding the documents said to be seized from Iran by the Israeli spy agency Mossad.

On Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian refuting Israel's claims as lies, Bennett said: "Spreading lies? Come on, I am holding right here the proof of your lies in my hands."

He added: "You see, after Iran stole classified documents from the UN’s Atomic Energy, Iran used that information to figure out what the Atomic Agency was hoping to find and then created cover stories and hid evidence to evade their nuclear probes."

He said Israel seized "Iran’s deception plan a few years back," referring to Mossad’s operation in which it said to have seized documents about Iran's nuclear program from a warehouse in Tehran in 2018.

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that Iran's nuclear files seized by Mossad in 2018 included the documents related to stolen IAEA documents, which were marked confidential.

Noting that hundreds of pages of the documents are “marked with a stamp of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence,” Bennett said: “There is even some handwritten notes on the documents, by senior Iranian officials like this one written by then-defense minister Fakhrizadeh.”

In November 2020, Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed by unidentified gunmen on the outskirts of Tehran. Most Iranian officials held Israel responsible for the killing, vowing a fierce response.

"Sooner or later they (referring to the Atomic Agency) will ask us and we’ll need to have a comprehensive cover story for them," Bennett quoted a note by Fakhrizadeh on the documents seized.

He said "Iran lied to the world, Iran is lying to the world again right now, and the world must make sure that Iran doesn’t get away scot-free."

Marathon talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA), are currently stalled due to key disagreements between Tehran and Washington.

On May 25, by US Special Representative for Iran Robert Malley, who led more than a year of indirect talks with Iran, said that the prospects of reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are "tenuous" at best.

Former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018.