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Report Alleges Hidden Iran Nuclear Activities; Tehran Readmits Inspectors, Restarts Uranium Processing
A committee of senior Iranian officials is coordinating concealment of the country’s nuclear program, even as international inspectors arrived Saturday to inspect Iran’s atomic facilities, according to Western diplomats and an intelligence report (see GSN, March 25). Iran organized the committee last year after international inspectors found evidence that Tehran was conducting research on centrifuges that could produce weapon-grade uranium, among other illegal activities, the sources said. The report was prepared by a country other than the United States, and is considered credible, said a Bush administration official. “The report is being viewed seriously because it originates from outside U.S. intelligence sources,” the official said. “It has contributed to a greater sense of frustration, both in the U.S and within the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency],” the official added. The report, prepared before Iran temporarily suspended international inspections, says the committee was “formulating a contingency plan: thinking up reasons for delaying the inspectors’ return to Iran, if it becomes necessary.” The committee’s priority was to hide nuclear evidence at nearly 300 sites in Iran, one diplomat said. Iran agreed to allow inspectors to return Saturday, but a diplomat involved in the inspections process said the team was only allowed by Tehran to view locations already identified as nuclear installations, and that the inspectors were reportedly barred from other sites due to a New Year holiday, according to the Los Angeles Times (Frantz/Efron, Los Angeles Times, March 27). Meanwhile, Iran’s atomic energy chief said on Iranian state television on Sunday that the country has resumed some uranium processing activity, highlighting ongoing differences of interpretation of an earlier Iranian pledge to suspend uranium enrichment activities, Agence France-Presse reported. Ghulam Reza Aghazadeh said the “voluntary suspension of uranium enrichment in Iran was a move to build trust with the IAEA, and based on the order of the Supreme National Security Council secretariat, the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization will suspend … building parts and facility construction.” He added that the Isfahan facility, where the resumption of processing is to take place, was “not part of the deal with the IAEA” (Agence France-Presse/Al Jazeera, March 28).
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