An Iranian opposition group that first exposed Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions in 2002 said this week it had discovered new evidence of yet another undeclared nuclear facility that has since been cleaned up.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Iran’s National Resistance Council (NCRI) gave more information about the site located in the Abadeh region of Iran. He claimed that the site was sanitized in July 2019 and was supervised by the scientist recently murdered nuclear chief, Moshen Fakhirzadeh. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were not allowed to enter the site until the end of August.
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The IAEA confirmed last month that inspectors reported that the Tehran regime had started production of metallic uranium, which is the latest violation of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran. The uranium was reportedly found at two locations in Iran.
NCRI footage of what it says is a nuclear facility now destroyed.
(NCRI / Google Earth)
“Today’s revelation shows that deception, denial and duplicity are part of the regime’s DNA,” Ali Safavi, an NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee official, told Fox News. “Neither Europe nor the United States should trust this regime as an honest and trustworthy interlocutor, believe in its promises and give in to its blackmail and stance.”
As part of its findings, NCRI said the site was first built by companies controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and was part of a project called Marivan, which involved a group called METFAZ that was involved “in research and construction of high-explosive nuclear devices. “
An image showing what the NCRI is the location of the installation after it has been cleaned. (NCRI / Google Earth)
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In addition, the group noted that Dr. Saeed Borji, a leading explosives expert, worked with Fakhrizadeh, the regime’s former nuclear chief. He said Borji continues to conduct research for the regime’s nuclear program.
The Trump administration withdrew from the agreement with Iran – known as the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA) – in 2015. The Biden government has indicated that it wants to resume the agreement, but said it expects Iran to comply with it first. Critics warned that Iran’s behavior cannot be controlled by the agreement, and Iran recently rejected informal negotiations with the US
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News last week that he believed the government intended to “return to this crazy and miserable nuclear deal that they did and that presented Iran with a very clear path to a nuclear program. “.
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Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior researcher and Iran expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), told Fox News: “Worse than just violating the JCPOA, the presence of nuclear material in two of the three sites recently inspected by the IAEA raises a question about adhering to Iran’s non-proliferation treaty and broader safeguards violations. “
He said the lesson for the Biden government was clear: “Iran’s interest in a nuclear weapon cannot be easily relegated to the past. The strategic logic for Iranian hedging remains. Any nuclear deal must address this, as well as the holes in it. the current verification agreement. “
He observed the NCRI exposure of the Natanz and Arak reactor sites about 20 years ago, and warned: “Let’s not forget, most of Iran’s open nuclear facilities today were once secret. There is a reason for that.”
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Meanwhile, on Thursday, three of the remaining JCPOA signatories – France, Germany and Britain – withdrew from a planned resolution to condemn Iran for its decision to begin limiting the IAEA’s access to the facilities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that Biden was a “friend of Israel”, but added: “As Prime Minister of the only Jewish state, we are not going to let a bunch of Ayatollahs clean us up from the face of the Earth or the map of history. So I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and so far we have been successful. “
The Associated Press contributed to this report.