JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Iran was developing nuclear weapons at a secret facility near the city of Abadeh, but Tehran destroyed the facility after learning it had been exposed.

It was the first time Netanyahu had identified the object, which he said was discovered in a trove of Iranian documents that Israel had previously obtained and disclosed last year.

“At this facility, Iran has been conducting experiments to develop nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said on air, showing an aerial view of several small buildings, including their coordinates, which he said were taken at the Abadeh facility in late June 2019.

“When Iran realized we had discovered the site, that’s what they did,” he said, showing a picture from a month later in which the buildings no longer appeared. “They destroyed the site. They just destroyed it.”

Netanyahu’s comments followed a Reuters report that the International atomic energy Agency found traces of uranium at another facility in Iran, which the Israeli leader first pointed to during a speech at the United Nations last year.

Iran has yet to explain traces of uranium at the site, although it denies ever seeking a nuclear weapon.

Netanyahu, who strongly opposed the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, made the speech about a week before Israel’s General election, in which he is in a tight race to win another term.

“I call on the international community to Wake up, to realize that Iran is systematically lying,” Netanyahu said.

“The only way to stop Iran’s bomb attack and its aggression in the region is pressure, pressure and more pressure.”

Reporting by Ari Rabinowitz; Editing by Stephen Farrell and Jonathan Otis

All quotes are delayed for at least 15 minutes. See the full list of exchanges and delays here.

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