Iran has bomb grade HEU and warhead design.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-11-17 02:41pm

Linky

Iran Got Warhead Design, Bomb-Grade Uranium -Exiles

Wed Nov 17,11:22 AM ET

By Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran obtained weapons-grade uranium and a nuclear bomb design from a Pakistani scientist who has admitted to selling nuclear secrets abroad, an exiled Iranian opposition group said on Wednesday.

The group, which has given accurate information before, also said Iran is secretly enriching uranium at a military site previously unknown to the United Nations (news - web sites), despite promising France, Britain and Germany that it would halt all such work.

"(Abdul Qadeer) Khan gave Iran a quantity of HEU (highly enriched uranium) in 2001, so they already have some," Farid Soleiman, a senior spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), told reporters.

"I would doubt it was given enough for a weapon," he added.

Soleiman said Khan, who ran a global nuclear black market until it was shut down earlier this year, also gave Iran a Chinese-developed warhead design sometime between 1994 and 1996.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said Khan's network gave Libya the bomb design and is trying to find out whether Iran got it too. There is no proof it did.

A Pakistani military spokesman did not comment: "We are not responding to every allegation that comes through the media."

"If true, it's significant," an EU diplomat said.

IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said the IAEA followed up "every solid lead." That will not be easy, because the U.N. agency has been denied access to Khan, who is under house arrest in Pakistan.

Diplomats in Vienna say the NCRI has been the best source of information on Tehran's undeclared nuclear program.

Washington also accuses Iran of secretly developing atomic weapons. Tehran denies the charge.

The NCRI is listed by Washington as a terrorist group. The EU has promised to do the same under its nuclear deal with Iran.

The group established its reputation as a whistleblower in August 2002 when it revealed an undeclared enrichment plant at Natanz and another site at Arak. It has revealed other sites.

IRAN ENRICHING URANIUM "AS WE SPEAK"

The NCRI said Iran was enriching uranium, purifying it for use for fuel or bombs, at a site in northeastern Tehran under a covert arms program.

"It continues to enrich uranium as we speak," Soleiman said. He said the site had an unknown number of centrifuges, which purify uranium by spinning at supersonic speeds.

"There are more sites involving uranium enrichment in Iran," he said, adding their locations needed verification.

Soleiman said Iran wanted a bomb by the middle of next year. Israel estimates Iran will be "nuclear capable" in 2007.

Iran promised the European Union (news - web sites) on Sunday to freeze its enrichment program, sparing it a referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions and opening the door to political and economic "carrots" France, Britain and Germany are offering.

Soleiman said the enrichment site, called the Center for the Development of Advanced Defense Technology, was run by the Defense Ministry and located in Lavizan, near where the United States suspects Iran conducted secret nuclear work before demolishing all the buildings and carting off the rubble.

Soleiman said equipment from Lavizan was moved to the new enrichment site to hide it. He said the NCRI sent the IAEA a letter about the 60-acre top-secret site a few days ago.

The IAEA said in a new report on its two-year investigation of Iran's nuclear program that Iran had not diverted declared nuclear materials to a weapons program, but did not rule out that secret atomic activities existed. (Additional reporting by Islamabad bureau)

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-11-17 02:46pm

Ariel Sharon's trigger finger must be getting mighty itchy.

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2004-11-17 03:11pm

I do wonder are these the same calibre of exiles who gave us all that totally accurate and utterly unbiased intelligence on Saddam’s oh so real WMD not so long ago?

JME2 · Post by **JME2** » 2004-11-17 03:55pm

Plekhanov wrote:I do wonder are these the same calibre of exiles who gave us all that totally accurate and utterly unbiased intelligence on Saddam’s oh so real WMD not so long ago?

I had a similiar thought when I read the article.

Plekhanov · Post by **Plekhanov** » 2004-11-17 04:16pm

JME2 wrote:
Plekhanov wrote:I do wonder are these the same calibre of exiles who gave us all that totally accurate and utterly unbiased intelligence on Saddam’s oh so real WMD not so long ago?
I had a similiar thought when I read the article.

I hope a sufficient number of other people keep on having such thoughts as it’ll make it much harder for the neo-con chickenhawks to push us into another unnecessary war.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2004-11-17 04:18pm

Oh yes, exiles.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-11-17 05:20pm

Illuminatus Primus wrote: Oh yes, exiles.

The group established its reputation as a whistleblower in August 2002 when it revealed an undeclared enrichment plant at Natanz and another site at Arak. It has revealed other sites.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2004-11-17 05:34pm

Well then hopefully they'll tell us where this place is.