Mossad leak contradicts Netanyahu’s claim that Iran was close to developing atomic bomb
Leaked paper shows spy agency disputed 2012 allegation Tehran was close to a nuclear weapon
Benjamin Netanyahu's dramatic declaration to world leaders in 2012 that Iran was about a year away from making a nuclear bomb was contradicted by his own secret service, according to a top-secret Mossad document.
It is part of a cache of hundreds of dossiers, files and cables from the world's major intelligence services - one of the biggest spy leaks in recent times.
Brandishing a cartoon of a bomb with a red line to illustrate his point, the Israeli prime minister warned the UN in New York that Iran would be able to build nuclear weapons the following year and called for action to halt the process.
But in a secret report shared with South Africa a few weeks later, Israel's intelligence agency concluded that Iran was "not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons". The report highlights the gulf between the public claims and rhetoric of top Israeli politicians and the assessments of Israel's military and intelligence establishment.
The disclosure comes as tensions between Israel and its staunchest ally, the US, have dramatically increased ahead of Netanyahu's planned address to the US Congress on March 3.
The White House fears the Israeli leader's anticipated inflammatory rhetoric could damage sensitive negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear programme. The documents, almost all marked as confidential or top secret, span almost a decade of global intelligence traffic, from 2006 to December last year. It was leaked to the al-Jazeera investigative unit and shared with The Guardian.
The cache, which has been independently authenticated by The Guardian, mainly involves exchanges between South Africa's intelligence agency and its counterparts around the world.