It's not a secret at all: Iran has received classified information about Israel's nuclear program

On Wednesday, September 24, it became known about the publication by Iran of a documentary about Israel's nuclear facilities. Among other things, it contains information about the nuclear and military centers of the Jewish state, as well as the names of nuclear scientists. Footage showing the passports of scientists, correspondence with the United States and other data was released on local television. Read more about Iran's film and Israel's nuclear program in the Izvestia article.

The "treasure trove of information" about Israel's nuclear facilities: what is known

On September 24, a documentary called "Spider's Nest" began to be shown on Iranian television. The footage is dedicated to the Israeli nuclear program. It is also reported that the film contains only a small part of all the information and classified data available to the Iranian intelligence service.

In total, according to Iranian officials, compromising data was collected on 189 nuclear researchers of the Jewish state. Photographs of the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, are also presented separately, which were reportedly collected by Israeli intelligence.

Among all the published data is also:

— documents on current and past weapons projects of the Netanyahu regime;

— information on modernization and reprocessing of old nuclear weapons;

— data on joint projects with the USA and some European countries;

— administrative structure, contact details and personal information of Israeli nuclear scientists (including passports);

— footage of the residence and a number of other sensitive sites associated with Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz;

— information about the research center in the city of Dimona (in the Negev Desert), where the oldest Israeli reactor is located;

—documents proving the influence of Israeli officials and American senators on the IAEA and their receipt of information about Iran's peaceful nuclear program.

The Minister of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic, Esmail Khatib, said that Iran's intelligence service has a "treasure trove of information" about Israel's nuclear program.

The minister also added that many Israelis cooperated with Tehran on this issue: "Nuclear agencies, military institutions and ordinary citizens [of Israel], cooperating with the Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran, participated in obtaining a huge volume of documents."

According to Esmail Khatib, they did this out of hatred for the Prime Minister of the Jewish state, Benjamin Netanyahu, or guided by material motives.

It is important to note that Esmail Khatib spoke about the "treasury" earlier on June 7. At the time, it was reported that the Iranian intelligence services had received an archive of confidential documents about Israel's nuclear program and were planning to make them public in the near future. Esmail Khatib also said that this information would strengthen the offensive capabilities of the Islamic Republic.

Difficult situation

Orientalist Tural Kerimov, in an interview with Izvestia, emphasized that the film was not accidentally published at the time of active negotiations between Iranian Foreign Ministers Abbas Araghchi and Rafael Grossi, as well as the presidents of Iran and France, Masoud Peseshkian and Emmanuel Macron, respectively.

— The issue of the Iranian nuclear program and the agreements that existed earlier, which are now being insisted on in the West, especially in the context of the restoration of UN sanctions against Iran due to the nuclear program, somehow forces Tehran to take retaliatory measures. In this sense, of course, the publication of this film and the distribution of these materials, their publication, has not only an external influence, but also an internal one," the expert notes.

He also added that with this film, Iran, on the one hand, shows that they have a certain plan of action that will be implemented in case of a negative scenario.

"On the other hand, the authorities in Tehran are trying to demonstrate as much as possible that the problem is not with them, not with the Iranian nuclear program, but with the fact that the nonproliferation regime in the Middle East was violated a long time ago and was violated with the help of, among others, the United States and France," the expert explains.

All this, as well as the fact that Israel has not joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and has nuclear weapons, shows that it is Iran that must defend itself, and not the other way around.

— So it is not Iran that poses a threat to Israel, but Israel that poses a threat to Iran. That is why it is necessary to deal with this issue, and not try to deprive Iran of the opportunity to develop its peaceful nuclear program, concludes Tural Kerimov.

This is particularly emphasized by Peseshkian's statement at the UN General Assembly that the Islamic Republic did not possess, does not possess and does not intend to develop nuclear weapons.

Orientalist Kirill Semenov, in turn, draws attention to the fact that there are likely to be no serious consequences from the publication of the documentary. He also noted that the fact that Israel has nuclear weapons has not been a secret for a long time.

— Therefore, we can say that Israel has been "forgiven for its nuclear weapons for a long time," Kirill Semenov believes.

Cooperation between Israel and the IAEA

Back in June 2025, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence conducted an operation to gain access to the secret archive of Israeli documents. Then it was discovered that the IAEA, using secret channels, transmitted confidential letters from Tehran to the IAEA to the Israeli intelligence agencies, "containing sensitive information." This was reported by the Fars news agency, referring to representatives of the Iranian intelligence service.

These documents, it was reported, made it clear that the IAEA had become a tool that discusses Israel's interests instead of playing a neutral role. According to Fars, the IAEA allegedly revealed to Israel the names of Iranian nuclear scientists, who were then killed during sabotage.