For Iran, the claim may be designed to show the public that the theocracy was able to respond to a 2018 Israeli operation that spirited out what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “half ton” of documents related to Iran’s program.

That Israeli announcement came just before US President Donald Trump, in his first term, unilaterally withdrew America from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which greatly limited its program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

This week, Western nations are expected to go before the IAEA’s Board of Governors with a proposal to find Iran in noncompliance with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. It could be the first time in decades, and likely would kick the issue to the UN Security Council.

That could see one of the Western countries involved in the 2015 nuclear deal invoke the so-called "snapback" of UN sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The authority to restore those sanctions by the complaint of any member of the original 2015 nuclear deal expires in October, putting the West on a clock to exert pressure on Tehran over its program before losing that power.