Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed at a news conference that the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence organization, has acquired a treasure trove of documents that prove that the nuclear arms deal struck between Iran and the Obama administration is a sham. The documents revealed a secret Nuclear Weapons program called Project Amad designed to build and test nuclear weapons. The announcement makes it more likely that President Trump will scrap the Iran nuclear weapons deal and impose stiff sanctions. The Netanyahu announcement comes on the heels of an air strike on Iranian missile storage facilities in Syria.

The announcement also tarnishes the legacy of former President Barack Obama, who saw the deal as his signature foreign policy accomplishment.

The modern ‘Munich’ agreement laid bare

When the Obama administration signed the Iran nuclear arms agreement, many outside experts decried it as a sham, comparing it to the 1930s-era Munich Agreement struck between Nazi Germany and Great Britain that led to the breaking up of Czechoslovakia. The inspection regime, it was pointed out at the time, was inadequate in terms of ensuring that Iran was complying with the agreement.

It looks like the critics were right and that Iran just continued to develop nuclear weapons in a new, secret program. By revealing that truth, Israel has ensured that the United States and the European Union should come up with better policies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear arsenal.

The documents that Mossad acquired, in what has to be the most spectacular intelligence coup of this century, proves that the agreement is not worth the paper it is printed on.

What happens next?

The nuclear weapons deal is now dead de facto. Indeed, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi hinted that Iran might withdraw from the agreement first, preempting whatever President Trump does, by stating, "The status quo of the deal is simply not sustainable for us, whether or not the Americans get out of the deal.” (HAARETZ).

Renewed and stern economic sanctions are all but a given. The possibility of a joint American-Israeli military strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program cannot be ruled out. The alternative is nuclear weapons in the hands of a regime that is ready to use them against its perceived enemies.

Obama is the modern-day Chamberlain

When Barack Obama signed the deal with Iran, he made an announcement that has turned out to be the 21st Century “peace in our time” statement that he had prevented the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons. The Netanyahu announcement has proven that Obama enabled that process. The former president, by signing a sham agreement, has made a general war in the Middle East more likely. The former president has decades left to mull over that terrible legacy.