The Mossad coup

Everyone in Europe has been dismissing Bibi Netanyahu's extravagant "publicity stunt" when he revealed that Israel had aquired a mass of documents that proved Iran was developing nuclear weapons up until 2003. We all knew that, the sceptics have been saying, there's nothing new, it's all part of Israel's pressure campaign to persuade Trump to scrap America's participation in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. His decision is due in less than two weeks. So the grand Netanyahu "I can reveal all" was just a typical Bibi moment to put Iran on the spot just as Trump is trying to get his thoughts together for his Big Decision. But hang about!! There is a lot more to this than a publicity stunt. Israel's secret intelligence service, Mossad, somehow broke into a storage warehouse in Tehran and stole thousands of documents which specifically outlined the nuclear weapons work which Iran had been carrying out, before they called a halt in 2003. So, even though successive Iranian regimes and also the spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, totally denied they were even remotely interested in developing nuclear weapons and that their nuclear programme was only about having efficient nuclear power for their factories and industry, the Mossad documents - assuming they are genuine - prove Tehran was lying and has always been lying. Now that, it seems to me, IS new. European governments might all say, "Oh well we knew all along that Iran was engaged in a clandestine nuclear weapons programme, that's why we negotiated this deal with Tehran". But the rest of us, not in the intelligence community, did NOT know for sure that Iran was lying even though we, too, were pretty sure they were. Mossad, by its extraordinarily daring secret operation, has now put on the table the written proof. If Trump doesn't make use of this stuff when he talks to the other signatories to the 2015 deal - UK, France, Germany, Russia and China - and then pile on the pressure on Tehran, I shall be amazed. The trouble is Netanyahu is such a publicist and one-track leader that only people like Trump really take him seriously. Oh and also Mike Pompeo, the new US secretary of state who has always said that Iran is a lying and cheating regime. But the leaders in Europe need to take this Mossad coup with the degree of seriousness it deserves. For once, this is secret intelligence right out in the open. They cannot ignore it. Whatever Netanyahu's intentions which of course are obvious, the Mossad docs could change the whole balance of the argument about whether to stay loyal to the 2015 nuclear deal or start ramping it up to a more meaningful agreement that, for example, bans uranium-enrichment by the Iranians for ever!