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Any genuine document theft, if verified, would represent a reversal of fortunes for Israeli intelligence, which has previously scored major coups against Iran’s nuclear program.
Iranian state media have reported that the country’s intelligence services have obtained a massive trove of sensitive Israeli documents related to nuclear facilities and strategic defense plans.
In reports broadcast Saturday on Iran’s state-run Press TV and echoed by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, Iranian operatives allegedly infiltrated and extracted “thousands of files” related to Israel’s nuclear projects and facilities.
“Although the operation to obtain the documents was carried out some time ago, the sheer volume of materials and the need to transport them safely into Iran necessitated a news blackout to ensure they reached the designated protected locations,” Press TV described the covert operation, citing unnamed sources.
Israeli authorities have not commented on the claims.
While Iranian media have presented their intelligence claims as a major victory, several factors raise questions about the scope and significance of any documents obtained.
Iranian reports provide no specific details about the alleged documents, no evidence of their authenticity, and no demonstration that they contain genuinely sensitive nuclear information.
Any genuine document theft, if verified, would represent a reversal of fortunes for Israeli intelligence, which has previously scored major coups against Iran’s nuclear program.
In 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli agents had seized a huge “archive” of Iranian documents showing Tehran had done more nuclear work than previously known.
Israeli operatives conducted that operation by stealing 55,000 pages and 55,000 digital files from a warehouse in Tehran, providing crucial intelligence about Iran’s past nuclear weapons research.
Earlier this year, an Iran-linked hacking group claimed to have breached the computer network of Israel’s Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center, publishing thousands of documents including emails and PowerPoint slides.
Israel has historically been suspected of conducting its own cyber operations against Iranian nuclear facilities, most notably the Stuxnet malware attack that damaged centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz enrichment facility in the late 2000s.
Meanwhile, nuclear talks between the United States and Iran have stalled over a fundamental disagreement about uranium enrichment.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff has stated that Washington “cannot allow even 1% of an enrichment capability” under any new agreement, while Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday that abandoning uranium enrichment was “100%” against the country’s interests.
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