(9 May 2018) On April 30th 2018 Israel's prime minister said his government has obtained "half a ton" of secret Iranian documents proving the Tehran government once had a nuclear weapons program.
Calling it a "great intelligence achievement," Netanyahu said Monday that the documents show that Iran lied about its nuclear ambitions before signing a 2015 deal with world powers.
Iran has denied ever seeking nuclear weapons.
In a nationally televised address, Netanyahu said Israel recently uncovered 55,000 documents and 183 CDs of information from Iran's "nuclear archives."
Speaking in English, perhaps with an international audience in mind, he says the material is filled with incriminating evidence showing the Iranian program, called "Project Amad," was to develop a weapon.
President Donald Trump is to decide by May 12th whether to pull out of the international deal with Iran. Netanyahu has led calls for Trump to withdraw.
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The foreign ministers of France and Germany on May 7th said they will continue to uphold the nuclear agreement with Iran, regardless of the upcoming US decision on whether to nix it.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to cancel the 2015 accord restricting Iran's nuclear activities, saying it's flawed.
At a news conference in Berlin, France's top diplomat Jean-Yves Le Drian said the three European countries that were part of the deal - France, Britain and Germany - are committed to maintaining it.
He was speaking alongside his German counterpart Heiko Maas.
Le Drian also said that Russia is a difficult but necessary partner on the international stage.
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President Donald Trump announced May 8th the U.S. will pull out of the landmark nuclear accord with Iran, dealing a profound blow to U.S. allies and potentially deepening the president's isolation on the world stage.
In a televised address, Trump said that the deal has not worked and that the world's "leading state sponsor of terrorism" is "on the cusp of acquiring the world's most dangerous weapons."
Trump's decision means Iran's government must now decide whether to follow the U.S. and withdraw or try to salvage what's left of the deal.
Iran has offered conflicting statements about what it may do - and the answer may depend on exactly how Trump exits the agreement.
Trump said he would move to re-impose all sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 deal, not just the ones facing an immediate deadline.
This had become known informally as the "nuclear option" because of the near-certainty that such a move would scuttle the deal.
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France said on May 9th said that the landmark deal with Iran "is not dead" despite the United States' decision to pull out of the agreement.
Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said that France wanted to preserve "at all costs" the Iran nuclear deal as part of efforts to guarantee security in the region.
He also said that French President Emmanuel Macron would speak with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, later on Wednesday.
Speaking in Paris, Griveaux said that the EU was ready to go to the World Trade Organisation to contest any unilateral action that could hurt the interests of European companies present in Iran.
Griveaux added that in the coming days, European partners should be able to "to reinforce the European position notably for the European companies present in Iran."
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