Netanyahu to present Trump with evidence of Iranian nuclear materials

Netanyahu to present Trump with evidence of Iranian nuclear materials
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump / CC: White House
By IntelliNews Tel Aviv bureau July 28, 2026

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will present US President Donald Trump with intelligence indicating that Iran has transferred nuclear centrifuges to the "Pickaxe Mountain" facility, the New York Post reported.

Netanyahu is expected to present this evidence during their Washington meeting on July 28, a Jerusalem-based source alleged.

The report also claimed that Netanyahu will provide intelligence exhibiting that the Iranian regime is actively rebuilding its missile and UAV arrays damaged in previous strikes.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Israel has obtained evidence that centrifuges were recently moved to the secret facility for the first time since construction began in 2020. The site sits more than 90 metres below Mount Kolang, near the Natanz nuclear complex. While suspicions about its purpose have circulated for years, no confirmed evidence of active nuclear operations had previously been published, a factor that contributed to its exclusion from earlier US and Israeli strike packages.

The Jerusalem source told the New York Post that the findings reinforce Israel's assessment that Tehran has no intention of abandoning its nuclear programme or military rebuild within the framework of ceasefire negotiations with Washington.

Trump appeared to distance himself from the intelligence as recently as last week, telling reporters that the US had no information indicating activity at the site. The statement sits in tension with separate reporting that US forces are preparing contingency plans for a possible ground operation to seize hundreds of kilograms of enriched uranium believed to be stored inside Iran.

Trump has nonetheless signalled openness to authorising a strike on the facility should the intelligence warrant it.

The timing of the meeting is pointed. Nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran remain active, and Iranian officials have previously warned that military escalation would render continued dialogue impossible. In addition, it appears that the Israeli prime minister is looking to dispel a belief that US-Israel ties have been fractured.

"I think that the main issue... is to show the world, to show Iran, and also even Lebanon and others as well specifically, that there is no break or any kind of major disagreement between the United States and Israel," Yonatan Freeman, an international relations expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told AFP. "There's more in agreement between the two leaders than disagreement." 

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