 The Shorabad warehouse (circled) on the outskirts of southern Tehran | |
 | |
| Date | 31 January 2018 |
|---|---|
| Time | 00:01–06:30IRST (UTC+03:30) |
| Location | Kahrizak District,Tehran |
| Coordinates | 35°29′40″N51°21′24″E / 35.49450°N 51.35654°E /35.49450; 51.35654 |
| Motive | Espionage |
| Target | Warehouse |
| Perpetrator | Mossad |
| Outcome | Theft of 100,000+ documents regarding Iran's secret nuclear weapons program (AMAD Project) |
On 31 January 2018, fewer than two dozenMossad agents infiltrated a secret warehouse in theKahrizak District of southernTehran (the capital city ofIran), and pilfered 100,000 documents, including paper records and computer files, documenting the nuclear weapons work of Iran'sAMAD Project between 1999 and 2015. The trove was part of Iran's clandestine nuclear archive, and documented years of work on atomic weapons, warhead designs and production plans.[1]
The 2015Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal signed by theObama administration gave theInternational 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 (also spelt Shurabad)industrial district of Tehran, previously unaffiliated with theIranian Ministry of Defense. The warehouse, which was approximately 23kilometers from Tehran city center, was located in a row of industrial warehouses and had no visible security presence.[2][3]
A decision was taken thereafter by Mossad directorYossi Cohen and Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu to gather evidence that would convince the newTrump administration to withdraw from the JCPOA deal,[4] and in early 2017 Mossad began planning an operation to capture the incriminating documents.[2][3]
Using a mixture ofhuman intelligence from within theGovernment of Iran andsignals intelligence from intercepted Iranian communications, Mossad determined that the Minister of EnergyReza Ardakanian and the head of the nuclear programMohsen Fakhrizadeh had chosen a rundown warehouse in Shorabad to hide the documents. Mossad then sent a femaleFarsi speaking undercover Israeli agent to Tehran for areconnaissance mission, where she would leisurely wander around the Shorabad district accompanied by amale guardian while wearing appropriateIslamic clothing and taking note of the security arrangements at the target warehouse. The agent's surveillance revealed that, in an effort not to attract attention, the warehouse did not have a 24 hour guard.[5]
Realizing that the team would have a maximum of seven hours in which to work before the morning security shift would arrive, an exact replica of the site was mocked up for agents to simulate covertly infiltrating it, which was as detailed as having the same type ofsafes as the material was contained in arranged in the same layout, to practice breaking into the safes themselves and to optimize the movement of the agents within such a confined space.[1] The main reason Mossad decided to physically steal the documents, rather than simply photograph them and have the infiltration remain undetected, was to preempt any subsequent claims by the Iranian authorities that the evidence was forged and also to offer it up for verification by third parties.[6]
Fewer than 24 Mossad agents arrived to a warehouse of theAMAD Project in Tehran overnight on 31 January, equipped with torches that could burn through dozens of safes that held documents and plans ofIran's clandestine nuclear program. At one minute pastmidnight, the agents used ajamming device to override thealarm system and then breached the iron doors of the warehouse itself. Due to time limitations, the agents only cut open six of the 32 safes, which were those that held the most incriminating material. Although the team's primary objective was to secure theblueprints of thenuclear weapon Iran planned to build, they also unexpectedly found dozens ofCD-ROM's containing thousands of electronic documents and videos relating to Iran's nuclear program.[5] Within six and a half hours, the agents had seized approximately 50,000 paper documents and another 55,000 pages of information and plans stored on 183 CD-ROM's, before security officials arrived to the warehouse at 7am. Images of some of the documents were transmitted back to a Mossad command center in Tel Aviv in real-time during the operation for verification purposes.[1]
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.[2][7] In a later interview, ex-Mossad headYossi Cohen implied that the documents and data CDs were smuggled out of Iran (allegedly toAzerbaijan)[5] via alorry, and the agency had several decoy trucks driving in different directions around the outskirts ofGreater Tehran in the aftermath of the operation to divert the attention ofIranian intelligence agencies. To negate the risk that the lorry carrying the near half atonne of documents might be intercepted before crossing the border out of Iran, much of the captured intelligence was transferred digitally to Tel Aviv before the lorry reached the frontier, Cohen added.[1]
In 2024, former Iranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed that Iran's intelligence service had established a unit designed to counter Mossad operations, but its leader was exposed as a Mossaddouble agent in 2021. Ahmadinejad further claimed that about 20 Iranian operatives were working alongside him as double agents, supplying critical intelligence to Israel and participating in the theft of Iranian nuclear documents.[8][9]
In total, the archive included 100,000 documents.[3] 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 developnuclear 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 expertDavid Albright, the documents indicated that Iran conducted morehigh-explosive tests than previously known. The trove indicated that nuclear scientists, such asMassoud Ali-Mohammadi discussed how to split Iran's nuclear program into overt and covert partitions.[2][3] The documents also containedschematics of Iran'sFordow nuclear facility (then known as Al Ghadir), yielding information on the size and layout of the underground complex.[10]
Journalists from theNew York Times and other US 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.[2] The documents also documented then-Iranian PresidentHassan Rouhani's membership of a Council for Advanced Technologies that approved the program and indicated that theIRGC andQuds Force played supporting roles.[11]
The US had previously known of Iran's nuclear weapons research before 2004, and the documents contained no revelations about recent nuclear activity.[3] According to journalistYonah Jeremy Bob and nuclear expertJeffrey Lewis, much of the key contents were already reported in past IAEA reports. However, the trove provided more clarity about Iran's specific goals for its arsenal,[12] and it proved that Iran violated the JCPOA, which prohibited Iran from engaging in any research and development activity and required full disclosure of all of Iran's nuclear program, including documentation.[13]
Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu publicly announced the operation in a televised presentation in English in Tel Aviv on 30 April, after privately briefing US PresidentDonald Trump. According to Netanyahu, the documents proved Iran had lied to the international community about its plans.[2][3][14] According to U.S. Secretary of StateMike Pompeo, the U.S. had been aware of the documents before Netanyahu's presentation, and Pompeo had discussed them with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.[15]
Mossad subsequently provided the entirety of the trove to visiting intelligence officials from Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. Netanyahu also spoke with Australian Prime MinisterMalcolm Turnbull, Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, British Prime MinisterTheresa May, Russian PresidentVladimir Putin, French PresidentEmmanuel Macron, and German ChancellorAngela Merkel about the contents of the nuclear archive.[7]
Days after Netanyahu's presentation of the documents, Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA,[2] which was the ultimate objective of the operation.[5]
