Israel presented on Monday what it said was evidence that Iran had continued gathering nuclear knowledge after signing a 2015 agreement with world powers to curb it, calling on Washington to jettison the agreement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s message was very clear - so clear he wrote it in giant Times New Roman letters on a screen behind him.
Inevitably this drew more than a bit of mockery.
But the incredibly basic approach makes sense when you remember who it was for - Donald Trump.
The US President has a notoriously short attention span. Last year, NATO planners were said to be “freaking out” over how to get him to digest complex information relating to global affairs.
A source told Foreign Policy at the time: “It’s kind of ridiculous how they are preparing to deal with Trump.
“It’s like they’re preparing to deal with a child—someone with a short attention span and mood who has no knowledge of NATO, no interest in in-depth policy issues, nothing.”
Let’s look at that picture again...
At least one person watching saw through it.
“Iran’s leaders repeatedly deny ever pursuing nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said during a televised address carried by Israeli networks. “Tonight I’m here to tell you one thing: Iran lied.”
He continued: “First, Iran lied about never having a nuclear weapons program. 100,000 secret files prove it did.
“Second, even after the deal, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons knowledge for future use.
“Third, Iran lied again in 2015 when it didn’t come clear to the IAEA as required by the nuclear deal.”
The Israeli leader spoke in English and showed pictures and videos purporting to be of historic secret Iranian nuclear facilities, as well as Iranian documents and plans to develop atomic weapons.
“After signing the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran intensified its efforts to hide its secret files,” he said. “In 2017 Iran moved its nuclear weapons files to a highly secret location in Tehran.”
Netanyahu referred to a secret Iranian nuclear project, codenamed “Amad”, which he said had been shelved in 2003, but he said work in the field had continued.
Trump has long criticised the 2015 agreement, under which world powers lifted economic sanctions on Iran in return for curbs to its nuclear program.