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Iran Resistance Alleges More Nuclear Tunnel Work By Joe Fiorill WASHINGTON — An Iranian opposition figure yesterday leveled the latest in a series of allegations about purported underground nuclear-weapon work by Tehran (see GSN, Jan. 10). Citing sources in the Iranian government, former National Council of Resistance of Iran chief spokesman Alireza Jafarzadeh said the Iranian military is working through a front company to build a “top-secret” tunnel in northeast Tehran. “It is intended to further the regime’s nuclear-weapons research and development,” Jafarzadeh said in a presentation at the National Press Club here. Now a private consultant in Washington, Jafarzadeh was the opposition group’s spokesman in 2002, when the organization first became prominent by leading International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to suspicious nuclear work in Iran. Yesterday, he provided less detail than at previous briefings on Iran’s nuclear work. “The sources indicate that this tunnel is to be used for nuclear research and development, including workshops and facilities, storage warehouses and administration,” he said. “The sources are confident that the tunnel is being built for nuclear-weapons research and development.” Jafarzadeh said construction of the “Hormuz Tunnel” began in March 2005. He said the facility is close to residential areas, suggesting that the location was chosen so that the nuclear site would “blend in” with its surroundings. “This location might deceive inspectors who would not imagine a sensitive nuclear site to be located near a neighborhood,” he said. Jafarzadeh said the information helps to show that Iran “is increasingly moving its nuclear-weapons program underground,” “is increasingly bringing its nuclear program under the control of the Revolutionary Guards” and “has sped up its program to gain access to its first nuclear bomb as rapidly as possible.” Former U.S. National Security Council member Raymond Tanter, whose Iran Policy Committee sponsored yesterday’s briefing, agreed. “The building of yet another tunnel in Tehran is not a public-works program for unemployed nuclear engineers but a weapons program run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps,” Tanter said. “The government of Iran does not use the Rev Guards to generate electricity from nuclear power. Rather, Tehran uses the Guards to generate political-military power from nuclear weapons research and development.”
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