The White House said that information contained in the trove of documents unveiled by Israel earlier Monday was confirmation of Iran’s efforts to develop a secret nuclear weapons program that it has “tried and failed to hide from the world.”
“The United States is aware of the information just released by Israel and continues to examine it carefully,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Monday evening.
“This information provides new and compelling details about Iran’s efforts to develop missile-deliverable nuclear weapons. These facts are consistent with what the United States has long known: Iran had a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program that it has tried and failed to hide from the world and from its own people. The Iranian regime has shown it will use destructive weapons against its neighbors and others. Iran must never have nuclear weapons.”
Sanders’ initial statement said, “Iran has a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program” but the White House changed the statement to “had” after it was released.
The documents, which were gathered by Israeli intelligence, demonstrate Iran was planning to continue a nuclear weapons program before signing the Iran deal with other world powers in 2015, Israel argues. Iran denied that it ever had a nuclear weapons program throughout the negotiation process of the agreement.
According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 110,000 files were obtained from an Iranian storage facility and include documents, charts, presentations, photos, and more about the regime’s nuclear weapons program.
“These files conclusively prove that Iran is brazenly lying when it said it never had a nuclear weapons program,” Netanyahu said Monday.
“Iran planned at the highest level to continue work related to nuclear weapons under different guises and using the same personnel,” he added.
Trump has indicated that he plans to pull out of the Iran deal, provided it is not altered. However, European allies though have urged him to remain in the deal.
The U.S. must make a decision about the agreement by May 12.
