Mossad infiltration of Iranian nuclear archive

On 31 January 2018, fewer than two dozen Israeli Mossad agents infiltrated a secret warehouse in southern Tehran, Iran, and pilfered 100,000 documents, including paper records and computer files, documenting the nuclear weapons work of Iran's AMAD Project between 1999 and 2003. The trove was part of Iran's clandestine nuclear archive, and documented years of work on atomic weapons, warhead designs and production plans.

Operation

The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) gave the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rights to visit declared facilities associated with Iran's nuclear program. In response, beginning in February 2016 the Iranians moved thousands of documents, records, and computer files about building nuclear weapons to 32 safes within a storage warehouse in the Shorabad district of Tehran, previously unaffiliated with the Iranian Ministry of Defense. The warehouse was located in a row of industrial warehouses and had no visible security presence. The Mossad had been monitoring the collection effort since early 2017 and that year began planning an operation to pilfer the documents.

Fewer than 24 Mossad agents arrived to a warehouse of the AMAD Project in Tehran overnight on 31 January, equipped with torches that could burn through dozens of safes that held documents and plans of Iran's clandestine nuclear program. Within six-and-half minutes, the agents had seized approximately 50,000 pages and 163 CDs of information and plans, before security officials arrived to the warehouse at 7am. When security officials arrived, they discovered the break-in. Iranian authorities began a nationwide manhunt involving tens of thousands of personnel to locate the agents, ultimately unsuccessful. It is unknown how the trove was exfiltrated out of Iran.

Contents

In total, the archive included 100,000 documents. The majority of the documents were created between 1999 and 2003, after which the AMAD Project was halted and Iran's nuclear program was moved under more secrecy. The documents demonstrated that Iran's program to develop nuclear weapons was larger, more sophisticated, and better organized than was suspected in 2003, when the AMAD Project was halted, according to nuclear experts and journalists. According to weapons expert David Albright, the documents indicated that Iran conducted more high-explosive tests than previously known. The trove indicated that nuclear scientists, such as Massoud Ali-Mohammadi discussed how to split Iran's nuclear program into overt and covert partitions.

Journalists from the New York Times and other U.S. outlets and inspectors from the IAEA confirmed that the documents demonstrated Iran had previously worked to develop nuclear weapons, despite the country's insistence that its nuclear program was only for civilian purposes. British and American officials confirmed the authenticity of the trove. The documents also documented then-Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's membership of a Council for Advanced Technologies that approved the program and indicated that the IRGC and Quds Force played supporting roles.

The U.S. had previously known of Iran's nuclear weapons research before 2004, and the documents did not prove that Iran violated the terms of the JCPOA. According to journalist Yonah Jeremy Bob and nuclear expert Jeffrey Lewis, much of the key contents were already reported in past IAEA reports. However, the trove provided more clarify about Iran's specific goals for its arsenal.

Aftermath

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly announced the operation in a televised presentation in English in Tel Aviv on 30 April, after privately briefing U.S. President Donald Trump. According to Netanyahu, the documents proved Iran had lied to the international community about its plans. Days later, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA. According to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the U.S. had been aware of the documents before Netanyahu's presentation and had discussed them with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.