It has become known what intelligence data convinced Israel and the United States that Iran had reached the point of no return in its quest to obtain nuclear weapons.
Journalists from The Economist have learned what the contents of the Israeli dossier on the progress of the Iranian nuclear program were.
What Israel and the US have learned about Iran's nuclear program
“This evidence prompted the Israeli security forces to support the attack. It was demonstrated to America and other Western partners. It probably plays a major role in decisions about whether to support the war,” the report said.
The Economist has not seen the material directly, but has obtained exclusive information from a trusted source that gives insight into the dossiers Israel has shared with its allies, as well as the claims it has made about enriched uranium and the acceleration of Iran's programme.
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The dossier contains two key pieces of evidence to support this claim.
The first is that the Iranian scientific team hid a quantity of nuclear material with an unclear enrichment status, unknown to monitors from the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
On June 9, the IAEA estimated that Iran has official stockpiles of more than 400 kg of highly enriched uranium.
The second reported proof was that the scientists had accelerated their work and were about to meet with Iranian missile corps commanders.
The publication notes: apparently, in preparation for the future coupling of a nuclear warhead with a missile.
What is known about the Iranian nuclear program
Much of Iran's previous nuclear weapons-related research and activities were already in the public domain.
The IAEA has published several documented reports, based in part on intelligence provided by Israel and other countries.
In 2018, a Harvard University team published its own analysis of Iranian documents stolen by Israel.
The sources describe Iran's long-running efforts to create a uranium core for the bomb and explosives to trigger a chain reaction, as well as programs to place a spherical payload on Iran's Shahab-3 ballistic missile.
In a report released May 31, the IAEA said Iran planned in 2003 to conduct what the Institute for Science and International Security calls a cold test – a simulated nuclear weapon using natural or depleted uranium rather than weapons-grade uranium.
Israeli intelligence assessments echo some of this information, claiming that a group of Iranian scientists had been working on overt and covert weapons research for years.
The effort was originally part of Iran's official nuclear weapons research program, known as AMAD, which was shut down in 2003, likely due to fears of an American attack.
