Iran Developing Nuclear Warheads, Exiles Claim

An organization of Iranian exiles has accused Tehran of operating a clandestine nuclear warhead development program at a missile research site on the outskirts of the capital city, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Feb. 19).

Iran is working on nuclear warheads for medium-range ballistic missiles in its Khojir facility on the southeastern edge of the Iranian capital, said Mohammad Mohaddessin, foreign affairs chief for the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

The group has also pinpointed lodging near the facility for North Korean technicians involved with warhead development, he said, adding that the information is current and was prepared over the past several weeks.

Mohaddessin yesterday passed evidence that included satellite photography to the International Atomic Energy Agency.  The U.N. nuclear watchdog has confirmed claims made by the group on two past occasions — including information released in 2002 that first exposed an Iranian uranium enrichment program that could assist in nuclear bomb-making efforts — but the agency could not verify another claim by the organization.

Neither of the new claims has been independently confirmed.  IAEA officials plan to check them against details from their own investigation into Iran’s nuclear program and would follow up on the assertions “if appropriate,” an agency official told the Journal.

Officials in Vienna and Washington have suggested previously that the opposition group — whose parent organization is on U.S. and EU lists of terrorist groups — could receive its intelligence from Israel or another government hostile to Iran.  However, the group maintains its information comes from contacts inside the country.

The group said it began work on the new report in December.  It is seeking to disprove a recent U.S. intelligence assertion that Tehran halted nuclear weapons development in 2003.

The U.S. intelligence community’s consensus on Iran’s nuclear weapons program has not shifted since the assessment was completed, said Ross Feinstein, spokesman for the office of National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell (see GSN, Feb. 6; Marc Champion, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 20).

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that his nation has emerged victorious from the international standoff over its nuclear activities, Agence France-Presse reported.

Iran has long rebuffed international suspicions that its nuclear program is aimed at weapons development, insisting it is intended only for civilian energy production.

“With the help of God, the Iranian nation with its unity, faith and determination stood and defeated the world powers and brought them to their knees,” he said in a televised address.

“If you come up with a new game … you will be facing this same nation,” he warned world powers now debating whether to impose a third set of sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment activities (Agence France-Presse I/Spacewar.com, Feb. 20).

IAEA officials have obtained enough information on Iran’s nuclear program for an upcoming report to the agency’s 35-nation governing council, former senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said in an interview published today.

Larijani also criticized the five permanent Security Council members and Germany for drafting the new sanctions resolution against Iran while the U.N. nuclear watchdog investigation was still under way.

“It is (the) IAEA that is important to us,” Larijani told the Financial Times.  “We have finished answering all their … questions” (Agence France-Presse II/Google News, Feb. 20).

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