Mossad Chief: Israel must 'ensure' Iran does not restart nuclear program

(Patria) - Head of Israel's Mossad intelligence service David Barnea stated on Tuesday that the country must "ensure" Iran does not restart its nuclear program, six months after bombing Iranian atomic facilities during a twelve-day war, AFP reported.

"The idea of continuing to develop a nuclear bomb still beats in their hearts. We bear the responsibility to ensure that the nuclear project, which was severely damaged, in close cooperation with the Americans, will never be activated," Barnea said at an award ceremony for Mossad agents in Jerusalem.

The outgoing intelligence chief, who will end his term in June 2026, praised Israel's surprise initial strikes in the war, which he suggested revealed a vast amount of intelligence that Israeli spies had gathered on Iran.

"The ayatollah regime woke up, at one point, and discovered that Iran was completely exposed and penetrated," Barnea said.

Expressing skepticism about any diplomatic solution with Tehran, Barnea added: "Iran believes it can fool the world again and implement another bad nuclear deal. We did not allow and will not allow a bad deal to be realized."

Western powers have long accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons and strive to prevent it from acquiring them, while Tehran denies this.

During his first term, US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement that limited Iran's enrichment of nuclear material in exchange for sanctions relief. Israel opposed the agreement, signed in 2015.

Iran and the US began negotiations on a new agreement in April, mediated by Oman, but those talks were interrupted by Israel's surprise attack on Iran on June 13, which triggered a twelve-day conflict. The United States joined the attacks on three Iranian nuclear facilities.

Trump repeatedly said his country's attack destroyed Iran's nuclear program, but the full extent of the damage remains unknown.

The Pentagon stated that the attacks delayed Iran's nuclear program by one to two years, contradicting an initial secret US intelligence report that, according to US media, determined the delay lasted only a few months.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had previously dismissed Trump's claims that Iran's nuclear program was destroyed, telling him to "keep dreaming".