Iran Politics Club Forum

[Liberator]

Iran Group 'Locates' Weapons Site

November 17, 2004
CNN
CNN.com





WASHINGTON -- An Iranian opposition group says it has disclosed the location of what it says is a newly discovered nuclear weapons research facility in Tehran. The allegation was made three days after Iran agreed with European nations to suspend its uranium enrichment program, a move that could improve the Islamic republic's relations with the West.

While Iran says its uranium enrichment activities are intended to produce fuel only for nuclear power plants, the United States contends the program is aimed at building nuclear weapons.

Sources in the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) told CNN there was a weapons site in the Lavizan district of the capital that was under the control of the Ministry of Defense.

The group said the Iranian regime moved various nuclear equipment to the new site after its previous facility in the Bagh Sian area in Lavizan was publicized and subsequently visited by the IAEA.

NCRI sent satellite photos to CNN that were apparently taken before and after the nuclear equipment was removed from the Bagh Sian facility, dated August 11, 2003 and March 22, 2004.

NCRI, also known as the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, has been put on the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations because it is accused of violence against civilians in Iran, a charge NCRI leaders reject.

CNN's Matthew Chance said the group had made similar allegations in recent years and its information had been found to be "somewhat patchy." The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday it was aware of the report and was investigating.

'Spent scenario'

Iran's top nuclear negotiator told CNN's Kasra Naji the latest report about the weapons site was false and politically motivated.

"This allegation is timed to coincide with the next meeting of the board of governors of the IAEA," Hussein Moussavian said.

"And every time just before the meeting there are these kind of allegations either from the United States or terrorist groups. And every time these allegations have proven to be false."

Moussavian called the allegations "a spent scenario."

"Categorically, Iran has no undeclared nuclear-related activity or facility," he said.

NCRI says the new location -- called the "Modern Defensive Readiness and Technology Center" -- is a 60-acre area opposite the Nobonyad Area, Mozhdeh Street, Lavizan District, Tehran.

"Despite its claims of cooperation with the IAEA, the Iranian regime is continuing its nuclear weapons program in defiance of its international obligations," said Ali Safavi, an business consultant in Washington, with ties to the NCRI.

"It also reveals, for the first time, some information on the extent of the involvement of Iran's Ministry of Defense in nuclear weapons research and development."

On Wednesday, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami called the nuclear deal reached at the weekend a "great victory" but said Tehran would not respect its commitment if Europeans failed to back his country at an IAEA meeting next week.

"Europeans, under the agreement, have recognized that Iran can exercise its rights (in seeking nuclear technology). This is a great victory," Khatami was quoted by The Associated Press as saying.

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


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[Liberator]

Iran Got Black Mkt Nuclear Plan

November 17, 2004
Dow Jones Newswires
The Associated Press



Iran bought blueprints of a nuclear bomb from the same black-market network that gave Libya such diagrams and it continues to enrich uranium despite a commitment to suspend the technology that can be used for atomic weapons, an Iranian opposition group said Wednesday.

Farid Soleimani, a senior official for the National Council for Resistance in Iran , said the diagram was provided by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani head of the nuclear network linked to clandestine programs both in Iran and in Libya.

"He gave them the same weapons design he gave the Libyans as well as more in terms of weapons design," Soleimani told reporters in Vienna. He said the diagram and related material on how to make nuclear weapons were handed to the Iranians between 1994 and 1996.

Mark Gwozdecky, spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said, "we follow up every solid lead," adding that the U.N. nuclear watchdog would have no further comment.

But a diplomat familiar with the agency and its investigations both into Libya's and Iran 's nuclear program said the IAEA has long feared Iran might have received bomb-making blueprints from Khan.

"The IAEA has found that Iran received pretty much the same things Libya did from his network," said the diplomat, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. "The one thing that they have not been able to find was the blueprint."

Libya bought engineers' drawings of a Chinese-made bomb through the Khan network as part of its covert nuclear program that it renounced last year.

Iran says it doesn't have such drawings, and no evidence has been found to dispute that claim. But experts say it is possible Iran already possesses a copy.

Former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright, in comments earlier this year, described the Chinese design Libya owed up to having as something "that would not take a lot of modifying" to fit it on Iran 's successfully tested Shahab-3 ballistic missile.

On the allegations Iran continued enrichment at a secret site near Lavizan-Shian outside of Tehran, the diplomat said the agency was looking into the possibility of equipment moved from Lavizan-Shian to an unknown location.

In a possible allusion to the group's claims, a report detailing IAEA investigations into Iran 's nuclear programs prepared for the agency's Nov. 25 board meeting notes Iran has failed to produce a trailer that apparently contained nuclear equipment at Lavizan-Shian for IAEA inspection.

The IAEA report also said Iran has "declined to provide a list of equipment used" at Lavizan-Shian, which the government says was home to research on how to reduce casualties in case of nuclear attack.

"The agency investigation of Lavizan...is still open," the diplomat said. "They are still pursuing what happened to the equipment at Lavizan."

Detailing what he said were Tehran's plans to make nuclear weapons, Soleinmani said that "as we speak the site continues to produce (enriched) uranium."

"The site...is not the only one that is being kept secret," he said. "There is a huge network devoted to this activity in Iran , and unfortunately the IAEA has hitherto understood the apparatus in only a small way."

Soleimani's organization is the political wing of the People's Mujahedeen, banned in the U.S. as a terrorist organization. While much of its information hasn't been confirmed, it was instrumental in 2002 in revealing Iran 's enrichment program at Natanz.

The opposition group says Lavizan-Shian was home to the Center for Readiness and New Defense Technology and was part of the covert attempt to develop nuclear weapons and included elements of Iran 's centrifuge enrichment program.

On Wednesday, Soleimani said that centrifuges and other equipment needed to produce enriched uranium had been covertly moved to the new site, near Lavizan-Shian but within Tehran city limits.

Enrichment at low levels generates fuel for nuclear power - and Iran says that is its sole interest. But the U.S. and other countries suspect Iran wants to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium for nuclear warheads.

Lavizan-Shian was razed by the Iranian government earlier this year as IAEA inspectors were preparing to visit it. The government says it was destroyed to make way for a park. But suspicions remain about the extent of the work done there - including the removal of top soil, which reduced the effectiveness of environmental samples taken by IAEA inspectors looking for unreported nuclear activity at the site.

Iran announced a full suspension of enrichment late last week, and the agency said it would police that commitment starting early next week, just ahead of the Nov. 25 IAEA board meeting.

The suspension pledge reduced U.S. hopes of having the board refer Iran to the U.N. Security council for alleged violations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The agreement, detailed Monday by Iran and in a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, commits Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment and related activities within a week in return for European guarantees that Iran has the right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program.

Under the agreement reached with the Europeans, a working committee would be formed within weeks to define what economic, technological, security and nuclear cooperation the European Union will provide in exchange for the enrichment freeze. It will report back within three months.

While the deal commits Iran to suspend all enrichment activities only for the time it takes to finalize a comprehensive agreement, European diplomats say they hope that - by engaging Iran - the freeze will turn into a long-term arrangement.


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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


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[Liberator]

Iran Using Lasers to Enrich Uranium - Exile Group

November 19, 2004
Reuters
Jon Boyle



PARIS -- An Iranian exile group accused Tehran on Friday of using advanced laser technology to secretly enrich uranium and of lying to the United Nations nuclear watchdog body about the covert program.

The opposition group, which has given accurate information before and made other accusations on Wednesday, said Iran was making bomb-grade uranium at the Lavizan facility in Tehran it disclosed two days ago, and at Parchin, 30 km from the capital.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said Iran was also seeking to develop a warhead to put on its medium-range Shahab-3 and Shahab-4 missiles, a development outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell warned of on Wednesday.

Iran promised the European Union on Sunday that it would freeze its uranium enrichment program, a move which spared it a referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.

It dismissed Wednesday's accusations as a "well-timed lie."

NCRI's Mohamad Mohaddesin said the West was being duped by Tehran and urged the United Nations to act now in order to foil Tehran's bid to build a nuclear bomb in 2005.

"In recent months, the Iranian regime officially declared to the IAEA (the U.N. nuclear watchdog) that it has shut down its laser enrichment program," Mohaddesin told a news conference in Paris where it has a large base.

"This is a completely false declaration by the Iranian regime ... They are using this laser technology in at least two military sites, maybe more."

He said Lavizan, a former munitions factory, switched to uranium enrichment about 18 months ago using laser equipment. A military complex at Parchin had been conducting similar work since 2000, he said.

Mohaddesin, who used commercial satellite photographs to support its case involving the two sites, said that the Iranian authorities had stepped up security around the Lavizan site since its revelations.

On Wednesday, NCRI said Iran had obtained weapons-grade uranium and a nuclear bomb design from a Pakistani scientist who has admitted selling nuclear secrets abroad.


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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


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[Liberator]

Iran Producing Gas Used In Making Nuclear Arms

November 19, 2004
Dow Jones Newswires
The Associated Press



VIENNA -- Iran is using the last few days before it must stop all uranium enrichment to produce significant quantities of a gas that can be used to make nuclear arms, diplomats said Friday.

Iran recently started producing uranium hexafluoride at its gas processing facilities in Isfahan, the diplomats told The Associated Press. When introduced into centrifuges and spun, the substance can be enriched into weapons-grade uranium that forms the core of nuclear warheads.

Iran last week agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and all like activities in a deal worked out with the U.K., France, Germany and the European Union. The deal, which goes into force Monday, prohibits Iran from all uranium gas-processing activities, as well as other programs linked to enrichment.

But the diplomats said Iran was exploiting the window until Monday to produce uranium hexafluoride at its plant in the central city of Isfahan.

Asked about quantities, a diplomat said "It's not little" but declined to elaborate.

Iran has huge reserves of raw uranium and has announced plans to extract more than 40 metric tons a year.

Converted to uranium hexafluoride and repeatedly spun in centrifuges, that amount could theoretically yield about 100 kilograms of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, enough for about five crude nuclear weapons.

Iranian officials say the Isfahan plant can convert more than 300 tons of uranium ore a year.


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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


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[Liberator]

Iran urges UN to ignore nuclear claims by exiles



TEHERAN –Reuters- Iran called on the UN nuclear watchdog body on Friday to ignore new allegations by a group of opposition exiles that it is trying to build nuclear weapons.

“The IAEA should not damage its prestige by listening to this terrorist group’s lies and taking it seriously,” Hossein Mousavian, Tehran’s chief delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Reuters.

Mousavian said the latest charges by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) that Tehran is purifying uranium at a secret plant in Tehran for weapons, in violation of a pledge it made to both the European Union and United Nations, was an attempt to poison its relations with the agency.

“This piece of information is absolutely baseless. It will harm the good atmosphere created between us and the IAEA,” he said. The IAEA meets next week to discuss Iran’s atomic plans.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Friday also rejected claims by US Secretary of State Colin Powell that Tehran had been working on ways to deliver an atomic warhead on a missile.

Powell’s assertions came hot on the heels of the NCRI charges. The group said Iran had obtained bomb-grade uranium and a warhead design from Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan’s atom bomb. Pakistan and Iran dismissed the allegations.

Diplomats say it would be hard for the IAEA to ignore the charges. Not all the NCRI’s past claims have been accurate, but enough of them have been to give the group a reputation as a key source of information on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

An NCRI spokesman said the group would release further details about the alleged secret enrichment plant in Tehran at a news conference in Paris later on Friday.

Iran on Sunday promised France, Germany and Britain it would halt its uranium enrichment programme in a bid to avoid a referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. The freeze is due to take effect on Nov. 22.

EUROPEANS DISTURBED

Diplomats in Vienna have said the EU was disturbed by the new NCRI charges as well as Powell’s.

Washington accuses Iran of secretly developing atomic weapons. Tehran rejects this charge, saying its plans are only for the peaceful generation of electricity.

The IAEA began looking closely at Iran after the NCRI said in August 2002 Tehran was hiding a large uranium enrichment plant and other facilities from the agency. The charges were confirmed and Iran later declared the sites to the IAEA.

The NCRI is the political wing of the exiled group known as the People’s Mujahideen Organisation. Both are listed by the US State Department as terrorist organisations.

Tehran has been developing a medium-range ballistic missile experts say would be able to hit Israel, Iran’s arch-foe.

The IAEA said in a new report on its two-year investigation of Iran’s nuclear programme that Iran had not diverted any of its declared nuclear materials to a weapons programme, but did not rule out the possibility secret atomic activities were taking place.

Diplomats said the IAEA planned to request a visit to the alleged new site in northeast Tehran to check the NCRI’s accusations.

Asked whether Iran would grant permission to the IAEA inspectors to visit the site, Mousavian said: “We have been cooperative with the IAEA and will continue to be so.

“We will assist it to verify the suspension before the board meeting.”


http://www.iranpressnews.com/english/sourc...rce/001380.html


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[Liberator]

Secret Iranian nuke site under civilian homes
World Net Daily - by Aaron Klein
Nov 19, 2004



Sources: Luxury villas disguise uranium enrichment plant in Tehran

Iran's secret uranium enrichment site, revealed this week by an Iranian opposition group, is housed below a luxury development complex in which civilians live, military sources told WorldNetDaily.

The National Council for Resistance, a grassroots Iranian organization, said Tehran was producing enriched uranium and testing biological and chemical warfare projects at a secret plant in northeast Iran which had not been disclosed to United Nations inspectors.

Military sources say the nuclear plant is hidden many feet below a development of luxury villas in the Iranian suburb of Nour in the Lavizan district of northeast Tehran. They say families of Iranian diplomats and top employees of Iran's Modern Defensive Readiness and Technology Center live in the villas, which contain entrances to a subterranean nuclear facility used to produce weapons-grade uranium and test chemical and biological warfare agents.

"If the U.S. or Israel wanted to hit these facilities, they'd have to target actual homes," one source told WorldNetDaily.

Muhammad Mohaddessin, a senior official of the National Council, said the group had shared the new information "very recently" with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and said inspection of the site revealed by his group would demonstrate that Iran is secretly trying to produce nuclear weapons even while promising to freeze a critical part of its declared nuclear program, which it claims is intended for civilian purposes only.

U.N. inspectors "should not be fooled or deceived by the Iranian regime," Mohaddessin said.

Hossein Mousavian, Foreign Policy Committee secretary at Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said yesterday the National Council's disclosures were propaganda. "It is a well-timed lie as well. The group wants to make another fuss ahead of the IAEA board meeting on November 25," said Mousavian. "They want to poison the board's atmosphere."

The National Council, based in Paris, is the political arm of the People's Mujahedeen which is listed by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization because of its involvement in attacks on Americans in the 1970s. But the group has in the past accurately revealed the location of several secret nuclear sites in Iran, and is taken very seriously by U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies.

If the disclosure proves accurate, it may increase pressure on America and Israel to take decisive action against Iran.


Aaron Klein is WorldNetDaily's special Middle East correspondent, whose past interview subjects have included Yasser Arafat, Ehud Barak, Shlomo Ben Ami and leaders of the Taliban.


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[Liberator]

Powell accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear missiles Fri. 19 Nov 2004



The Guardian

Julian Borger in Washington



The Bush administration yesterday accused Iran of attempting to develop missiles with nuclear warheads - a charge that could derail the European arms-control agreement struck earlier this week.

The accusation was made by the outgoing secretary of state, Colin Powell, while on an official visit to Chile for an Asia-Pacific economic summit.

He told reporters: "I've seen some information that would suggest they have been actively working on delivery systems ... you don't have a weapon until you put it in something that can deliver a weapon."

Iran has long been suspected of producing weapons-grade enriched uranium, and Tehran claimed last month to have missiles with a range of 1,250 miles. But this is the first time the US has said that Iran is taking the third crucial step of combining the two by building a nuclear device small and sophisticated enough to use as a warhead.

"I'm talking about information that says they not only have these missiles, but I am aware of information that suggests they were working hard as to how to put the two together," Mr Powell said.

He also appeared to support claims made this week by an Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), that Tehran was flouting its European agreement by enriching uranium at a secret military site in the capital. The NCRI is a political front for the People's Mujahideen guerrilla group, which would be outlawed under the European deal.

In return for such a ban, plus economic incentives, Tehran promised in its accord with Britain, France and Germany to abandon uranium enrichment - a process necessary both for nuclear power plants and weapons. Washington has been cautious about the agreement and has argued instead that Iran should be taken to the United Nations Security Council and condemned for violating earlier undertakings to curb its nuclear research.

The UN's international atomic energy agency issued a report this week concluding that "all the declared nuclear material in Iran has been accounted for", while its director, Mohamed ElBaradei, could not rule out the possibility that Iran was pursuing a clandestine enrichment programme.

But Joseph Cirincione, a proliferation expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: "The US scenario was to bring the Iranians to the Security Council. The European-Iranian deal killed any chance of that. This may be part of a counter-attack to derail the European deal without overtly opposing it."



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[Liberator]

Earlier articles on IRI's efforts to aquire NUKES:

http://www.iranunited.com/forums/index.php?s=932f049deacbbb1e88a822d3deafdc0c&act=ST&f=2&t=3543&st=0
_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


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[Liberator]

To Destroy Iran's Nuclear Bomb Program, 350 Targets Must Be Hit



November 19, 2004
DEBKAfile
DEBKAfile Special Report



No one familiar with Iran’s record of broken promises on its hidden nuclear weapons program will be surprised by the allegations leveled against Tehran this week.

On Wednesday, November 17, outgoing US secretary of state Colin Powell said to reporters during a South American tour: US has intelligence that Iran is working to adapt missiles for the delivery of nuclear weapons. “I have seen information that they not only have the missiles but are working hard to put the two together.”

The highly classified, unverified information Powell referred to was described in more detail by the Washington Post the next day: According to one official with access to the material, a “walk-in” source approached US intelligence earlier this month with more than 1,000 pages purported to be Iranian drawings and technical documents, including a nuclear warhead design and modifications to enable Iranian ballistic missiles to delivery an atomic strike. The warhead design is based on implosion and adjustments aimed at fitting the warhead on existing Iranian missiles.

DEBKAfile’s military experts believe the data referred to the Shehab-3 and its improved version, the Shehab-4.

The US official said he would not have revealed this much had not Powell alluded to the intelligence publicly. If the information is confirmed, it would mean the Islamic republic is further along than previously known in developing a nuclear weapon and the means to deliver it.

It would also mean that Tehran has been stringing along the International Atomic Energy Agency – the IAEA – and the three European powers, Britain, France and Germany, in months of negotiation. The upshot was an Iranian promise to the three, which was trumpeted this week, to suspend uranium enrichment for an indefinite period in three days time, in return for magnanimous incentives. Such promises have been made before and never last long. Three days later, on November 25, the International Atomic Energy Agency – the IAEA – holds a board meeting in Vienna. It must decide whether to accept Iran’s latest promise or refer Iran’s nuclear breaches to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

Teheran therefore delivered its pledge in a race for time to save itself from sanctions that could threaten the Islamic republic’s regime’s survival.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly 182 just out on Friday, November 19, was the first publication to name the Nour garden suburb of Lavizan in northeast Tehran as yet another covert site Iran has concealed from the IAEA. There, not only is enrichment going forward but also tests on lethal gases and weaponized biological agents.

According to DEBKAfile’s Washington sources, the Pentagon’s most recent game model on military measures to dispose of Iran’s nuclear threat concludes it will be necessary to topple the Islamic republic’s regime at the same time.

The first stage would be a bombing mission against the regime’s primary prop, the Revolutionary Guards.

The second stage would be the destruction of known and probable nuclear sites – a much harder mission given the hundreds of sites known and unknown number and carefully camouflaged underground behind cunning window-dressing. US intelligence estimates as many as 350 sites. It does not have precise knowledge of which are the most important or even which are active.

Regime change in stage three would entail ground action.

At present, there are no air bases within range for carrying out stages two and three. Sufficient US troops for overthrowing the regime would pose a problem given Iran’s land area of four times that of Iraq.

Furthermore, there is no assurance that Iran would wait for stages 2 or even 3. Iranian agents may well pre-empt US action or retaliate by sabotage strikes or terrorist action inside America.

Co-opting Israel’s air might to the operation poses problems too. The Israelis are found to know as little about the locations of installations as the Americans. To reach Iran, Israeli warplanes would have to fly east over Saudi Arabia and Jordan, or north over Turkey. The distance of some targets, such as Iran’s nuclear sites in the Caspian Sea region, is too great for Israeli planes to make the round trip.

Notwithstanding these impediments, America cannot afford to give up its military option and must keep it afloat as a deterrent, say the authors of the Pentagon game model.

A sample out of Iran’s bag of hide-and-seek tricks with the international nuclear watchdog was exposed in DEBKA-Net-Weekly 160 on June 4, 2004:

The most secret section of the latest report the International Atomic Energy Agency’s director Mohammed ElBaradai has drafted on Iran’s nuclear program is also the most embarrassing for the international nuclear watchdog. We reveal exclusively that when inspectors arrived in Iran in mid-May and asked to revisit installations they saw in February or April, they were astonished to find empty spaces. When they questioned their Iranian escorts, they were greeted with blank stares. “What installations?” the officials asked.

The inspectors pulled out photos from previous visits and showed the Iranian officials what had been there before. The Iranians dismissed them as having been shot in other places that looked the same - or grafted there by “hostile intelligence bodies.”

When the inspectors persevered and reported the existence of aerial photos showing the exact location of the missing facilities, the Iranians shrugged.

The amazing fact is that the Iranians had dismantled and swept away all the structures containing incriminating evidence of continuing uranium enrichment for weapons production so completely that there was no sign a building had ever stood there. The fresh flowerbeds were still in the same places as before but lawns had been extended to cover the sites, most probably with thick layers of earth. All the inspectors could do was to remove soil samples and take them away.

According to our sources, US officials involved in the Iranian nuclear issue have no doubt that the installations were not destroyed but removed to secret subterranean sites probably built under military bases scattered around the country and that the Iranians are industriously advancing their forbidden programs.

Five months later, we have discovered one of those clandestine destinations to be the Nour “nuclear suburb” of Tehran.


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[Liberator]

Verbatim: Opposition sites new intelligence on Iranian laser enrichment Fri. 19 Nov 2004



Iran Focus

Paris, Nov. 19 - Iran Focus has obtained the text of a press conference by senior representatives of the Iranian opposition coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which took place in Paris on Friday, Nov. 19.

Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee, accused Tehran on Friday of using advanced laser technology to secretly enrich uranium and of lying to the United Nations nuclear watchdog body about the covert program. He added that Iran was seeking to develop a warhead to put on its medium-range Shahab-3 and Shahab-4 missiles.

“In recent months, the Iranian regime officially declared to the IAEA (the U.N. nuclear watchdog) that it has shut down its laser enrichment program … This is a completely false declaration by the Iranian regime ... They are using this laser technology in at least two military sites, maybe more”, Mohaddessin told reporters.

On Wednesday, the NCRI held a separate press conference revealing a new secret Iranian nuclear site.

The full text of the conference follows:


NCRI Conference in Paris – 19 November 2004:
Iran’s Nuclear Project
Ministry of Defense Continues Secret Work on Laser Enrichment Program

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for coming. Today I would like to briefly inform you of two important issues concerning the Iranian regime’s nuclear activities.

1. Laser enrichment program

Contrary to its pledge to suspend all activities related to uranium enrichment, the Iranian regime is pursuing its secret work on laser enrichment of uranium.

The mullahs’ regime has been secretly pursuing extensive activities in laser enrichment for the past few years, and these activities have been kept completely hidden from IAEA inspectors.

The Iranian Resistance announced in May 2003 that research and experimentation related to laser enrichment has been going on in Lashkar-Abad in the Hashtgerd region of Karaj, west of Tehran. We announced at the time that research in this field was being conducted under the direction of Dr. Sabbagh Zadeh. At the time, the mullahs’ regime strongly denied our revelations. But just a few days ago, the IAEA report noted that the Iranian regime had failed to declare laser enrichment activities at Lashkar-Abad.

This site was established in 2000. Laser enrichment reasearch was conducted on 22 kilograms of natural uranium metal smuggled from the former Soviet Union.

Three months after our revelation of the secret site at Lashkar-Abad, the Iranian regime allowed IAEA inspectors to visit the site. The inspectors determined that the facility was operating a laser laboratory. When IAEA inspectors requested permission to take environmental samples at the laboratory, they were refused and were told this would be considered. Iranian officials claimed that the facility was originally devoted to laser fusion reaserach and laser spectroscopy, but that its focus had changed. That was an obvious lie; the regime had kept the site secret and was conducting laser enrichment research until we exposed it. IAEA requests to examine the equipment used in laser enrichment project and interview the scientists involved have been “deferred by Iran”.

The Iranian regime did not allow IAEA to visit the site for three months after our revelation, despite the fact that IAEA made the request almost immediately after we exposed the site. During that time key equipment and materials were removed from the site.

The Iranian regime acknowledged in October 2003 that work on a laser enrichment program had been going on for years. The regime had been developing a laser enrichment program based on two techniques: atomic vapor laser isotope separation and molecular isotope separation.

In recent months, the Iranian regime officially declared to the IAEA that it has shut down its laser enrichment program. Mr. El-Baradei’s report issued on September 3, 2004, noted, "Iran has also stated that it had destroyed its laser enrichment projects and its equipment and that it was not making or separating plutonium."

This is a completely false declaration by the Iranian regime. The fact is that the Iranian regime had stopped the laser enrichment program that was conducted by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), but was pursuing it in the military system of the nuclear program. The laser enrichment project of the Ministry of Defense is pursued by Mohsen Fakhri-Zadeh at MoD and IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guards) centers and is shrouded in secrecy. According to our information, laser enrichment activities are ongoing in at least two important military centers:

1. The Center for Development of Advanced Defense Technolgy (CDADT), located in Mozhdeh Street in Lavizan, north-east Tehran. The Iranian Resistance exposed this site two days ago. The center is run under the supervision of Dr. Fereydoon Abbasi, a Ministry of Defense laser specialist and one of the few experts in separation of isotopes. He is also in charge of the nuclear training and research at the Ministry of Defense. Dr. Abbasi plays a key role in the Ministry of Defense’s elaborate concealment program to keep the regime’s nuclear activities secret and deceive IAEA inspectors.

2. Laser enrichment activities in Parchin Military Complex 30 km southeast of Tehran. The center is a subsidiary of the Military Industrialization Organization. This center is run by the Aerospace Organization of the Ministry of Defense, where ammunitions, missiles and explosives are developed and tested. Chemical activities are also carried out in the same compound. There are also laser enrichment facilities at this center. The center is run under the supervision of Dr. Muhammad Amin Bassam, a laser exper of the MoD who works on laser enrichment and reports to Mohsen Fakhri-Zadeh.

Here are the names of a number of laser experts working for the MoD:

• Mohammad Amin Bassam: member of IRGC; tries to keep his activities in the mullahs’ nuclear program secret. He is a laser specialist and reports to Mohsen Fakhri-Zadeh. He is based at Parchin Complex and conducts laser research and experimentation there.
• Dr. Majid Reza Zadeh, Malek Ashtar University, Isfahan
• Massoud Askari, expert in laser application in nuclear projects, he gives lectures one day a week in the Physics Group in Imam Hussein University; has active relations with Dr. Abbasi in laser activities.
• Yousef Hatefi
• Javad Ahmadi


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[Liberator]

Verbatim: Iranian opposition reveals ‘secret nuclear site’ in Tehran Fri. 19 Nov 2004

Iran Focus







Paris, Nov. 19 - Iran Focus has obtained the text of a press conference by senior representatives of the leading Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which took place in Paris on Wednesday, Nov. 17.


Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee, on Wednesday revealed the presence of a new secret nuclear site in Northeast Tehran. He accused the Iranian government of having transferred its nuclear projects from the Lavizan-Shian facility to a military site called ‘The Center for Development of Advanced Defense Technology (CDADT)’. Iran Focus has also managed to obtain a number of aerial pictures shown at the conference.

The full text of the conference follows:

Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program:
Secret Uranium Enrichment Site Shows Continuing Pattern of Concealment and Deceit - 17 November 2004

Today we are revealing another top-secret nuclear site in Iran, run by the Ministry of Defense as part of the Iranian regime’s clandestine nuclear weapons project. The existence of this site and the sensitive nature of the work being conducted there have been kept completely secret from the International Atomic Energy Agency and its inspectors. Despite the official pledges and promises of the Islamic Republic of Iran, including in the latest deal concluded with the EU-3, uranium enrichment activities are going on at full speed in different secret locations across Iran. The clerical leadership in Iran is determined to acquire nuclear weapons next year and the only elements that stand between this intent and the first nuclear bomb are time and engineering.

Nuclear weapons in the mullahs’ military doctrine
1. Since the year 2000, Iran’s military planners and strategists have been working on a new concept for the theocratic state’s military doctrine to take into account the new realities in the region and on the world stage. The work has been expanded and updated since the post-9/11 events, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
2. The new doctrine proposes that the key to the survival of the current Islamic fundamentalist state in Iran, in view of the recent global and regional trends and the growing domestic crises, is for the Islamic Republic to adopt a more aggressive posture in exporting Islamic revolution and expanding Iran’s influence in the Muslim world, while at the same time developing a viable military strategy in case of an eventual military showdown with the U.S. and its allies.
3. Working on the assumption that a conventional military confrontation with the U.S. is completely disadvantageous for Iran, the mullahs’ military strategists have developed a strategy that tries to capitalize on the perceived weaknesses of the U.S. and its allies. This strategy of “asymmetric warfare” has three essential components:
- Mass suicidal operations (“martyrdom-seeking operations) against key U.S./allies targets/interests in the region and other parts of the world
- Development and enhancement of missiles (range and accuracy) and arming Shahab-3 and Shahab-4 with nuclear and chemical warheads
- Acquisition of nuclear weapons

4. The ruling mullahs consider the acquisition of nuclear weapons an indispensable part of their security/military strategy. They see three important benefits from becoming armed with nuclear weapons:
- The survival of the Islamic theocratic state in Iran will be guaranteed;
- The Islamic Republic will become the undisputed regional hegemon and will be in a position to blackmail governments in the region, particularly its southern Arab neighbors;
- The enthusiasm generated by this development among Muslims will facilitate the export of Islamic revolution to other Muslim countries and raise IRI’s standing in the Muslim world (Clerical rulers call the Islamic Republic of Iran Umm-ol-Quraa, “the Mother of All Islamic Lands”)
5. In a secret meeting with top officials in charge of the nuclear program, Khamenei ordered them to mobilize all the powers of the state to speed up the development of nuclear weapons and aim for mid-2005 as a target date for the first bomb.

Iran’s Two-Track Nuclear Program
6. The Iranian regime has organized its nuclear program in two parallel, autonomous systems that ultimately fall under the supervision of Khamenei and a close circle of trusted advisers. These two separate components are the so-called civilian program and the military program.
7. The main agency in the civilian progam is the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), run by Gholamreza Aghazadeh. The AEOI is in charge of the power plants such as the Bushehr light water reactor and the nuclear fuel cycle activities, including the mining site in Saghand, the yellow-cake producing sites in Bandar-Abbas and Ardakan, and the Uranium Converstion Facility in Isfahan. Research institutes and universities working openly on nuclear projects and government agencies that require nuclear technology for non-military purposes (medical and agricultural applications) are liaise with AEOI.
8. The civilian program is not just a cover for the military program, but is complementary to it and also provides it with both technological know-how, a pool of experts and access to the necessary matierials and equipment. For this reason, AEOI itself in under the supervision of the Supreme National Security Council and Aghazadeh reports to Hassan Rohani, the mullah who is the secretary of SNSC and in charge of negotiations both with the IAEA and the EU-3.
9. The military program is controlled by the secretive Supreme Military Committee, made up of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firuzabadi, IRGC Commander in Chief Maj. Gen. Rahim Safavi, and Defense Minister Adm. Ali Shamkhani. All three are from the Revolutionary Guards (none from the regular army).
10. The IRGC and the Defense Ministry in effect run the nuclear weapons program, with the IRGC effectively in control of activities in the relevant departments of the DefMin. The Supreme Military Committee reports directly to Khamenei and has regular meetings with him.
11. The military program is essentially focusing on three key projects: production or procurement of enough quantities of HEU for a nuclear bomb; development of alternative enrichment techniques; work on weaponization technology and means of delivery.
12. An important function of the military program is concealment. A specialized agency within the Defense Ministry, the Special Office for Security, runs the concealment program in close liason with IRGC intelligence and MOIS.
13. While the AEOI runs its own procurement program and an array of front companies, the military program has a far more extensive set-up for procurement, made up of front companies and elaborate transportation routes. The first contact with the Pakistani scientist and nuclear smuggler Abdul-Qadir Khan was made by Defense Ministry agents and he has maintained his ties with them.

Chain of Command
14. All important decisions regarding the nuclear project are taken at joint meetings of the two committees (civilian and military), often attended by Khamenei. No important decision is ever taken without Khamenei’s approval. Regular participants are: Rohani, Firuzabadi, Safavi, Shamkhani, Intelligence Minister Ali Younessi, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, Khamenei Adviser Ali-Akbar Velayati, and AEOI chief Aghazadeh. Experts and scientists are invited to attend where necessary.
15. The two-track system gives Iran greater ability to conceal the military program and thwart internaitional inspections. Those involved in the military component are essentially kept away from IAEA inspectors. Scientists and experts in the military program have full, unimpeded access to all know-how and materials in the civilian program, but those in the civilian program are kept completely in the dark as far as the military program is concerned.
16. The downside of this arrangement is that a lot of work has been duplicated, and much energy and capital wasted as a result.

The key role of the Defense Ministry
17. Much of what has been said about Iran's nuclear activities in public has been the AEOI’s domain; seldom has light been shone on the role of the Ministry of Defense (MD) and the IRGC.
18. Until recently, the nuclear and BW projects in the MD were being conducted in the ministry's Defense Research Institute (DRI) chaired by Brig. Gen. Dr. Ali Hosseini-Tash.
19. Recently, the Nuclear/BW components have been separated from DRI and Hosseini-Tash is now fully devoted to these projects and has been promoted to Deputy Minister of Defense. He reports directly to Defense Minister Admiral Ali Shamkhani. After Hosseini-Tash’s departure, the DRI is now run by Mohammad Eslami.
20. In the organization under Hosseini-Tash, a highly specialized nuclear expert called Mohsen Fakhri-Zadeh is in charge of the nuclear project and Nader Maghsoodi is in charge of the BW project.


Disclosure of a Major Secret Nuclear Site

The Iranian regime has kept a top-secret nuclear site well away from the IAEA and its inspectors. The site in northeast Tehran is run by Mohsen Fakhri-Zadeh, one of the regime’s top nuclear scientists. The site is called The Center for Development of Advanced Defense Technology (CDADT). It is located opposite Nobonyad Street, Mozhdeh Street, Lavizan, north-east Tehran.
1. The above site was previously occupied by the Ordnance Factory Support Center, a subunit of the MD. The support center consisted of three battalions called Beheshti, Troop Transport and Heavy Transport. The battalions were ordered by Defense Minister Shamkhani to evacuate the site a year and a half ago, when the CDADT moved in. The site is located in a 60 acre area and has three entrances in Mozhdeh Street.
a. The first entrance is from Hussein Abad Sq. where Beheshti battalion was stationed. There are construction works at this entrance.
b. The second entrance leads to the CDADT and this is where the troop transport battalion was stationed. Mohsen Fakhri-Zadeh's office is located here.
c. The third entrance is situated 500 m from the second and this is where the heavy transport battalion was based. There is a sign at the entrance which reads in Farsi: Defense Industries Research Center. This is where Nader Maghsoodi works and BW/CW research is conducted here.
2. The center is a top-secret place protected by many closed-circuit cameras. Visitors are prohibited from entering the place, even those who were working in the same place.
3. Here is an account of the premises in the site:
a. There are many premises and installations in the site including administrative buildings, heavy transport parking area, buses parking area, light vehicles parking area, heavy transport maintenance, gas station and warehouses, all of which have been handed over to the CDADT.
b. There are also several buildings in the previous place of Beheshti battalion and the above center started building new premises in recent months.
4. All the equipment and devices in Shian Site were completely moved to the new site.


Ministry of Defense Secretly Moves Nuclear Equipment

The Defense Ministry had long been using a site secretly in Shian District northeastern of Tehran for its activities until March 2003, when the PMOI and the Iranian Resistance disclosed the information about the above site and announced that it was a center used by the Defense Ministry for technical research and banned activities to achieve weapons of mass destruction. Following the disclosure of the site, the Defense Ministry moved the equipment out of the site and demolished the premises to stop further information of the secret nuclear activities being leaked out.
In March 2004, a series of satellite images taken from Bagh Shian area in Lavizan District were released and it was revealed that the Iranian Ministry of Defense has completely demolished the area and the roads leading to the site in an attempt to eliminate every trace of secret activities.
Subsequently, a team of IAEA inspectors visited Shian site on June 28, 2004. Later, it was stated in Mr. El-Baradei’s report that there were 11 kinds of activities being performed in the site and the Iranian regime was not willing to explain to the IAEA inspectors about the activities and the equipment in the site.
Here is the recent information obtained by the PMOI about the Defense Ministry's secret activities and the complete demolition of the site:
1. Following the disclosure of the information on Shian site by the PMOI, the Nuclear Committee of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) chaired by Hassan Rowhani had predicted that the IAEA would want to visit the site and would realize the Ministry's secret nuclear activities there. The committee decided to completely demolish the site.
2. Prior to the demolition, the ministry moved the nuclear facilities to the secret site of the CDADT in the MD Ordnance Factory Support Center.
3. There were two Whole-body Counters in the Shian site which were purchased by the Iranian regime from western countries in the 1990s for peaceful purposes and the Defense Ministry was using them for nuclear research. One of the devices was moved to Malek Ashtar University in Isfahan (a subunit of the Defense Ministry) and the other was moved to a private clinic in Tehran. The purpose of such move was to take the inspectors to the two places and deceive them.
4. In an attempt to explain the demolition of Shian site, Hassan Rowhani on June 27, 2004 said that the piece of land was owned by the municipality and according to a plan a park was going to be built in that place and the Defense Ministry had reached an agreement with the municipality in this respect. But the municipality's documents regarding the area (of which the PMOI obtained a copy) stated: "Tehran's municipality’s Precinct No. 3 in District 4 (Lavizan District) realized that there were demolition works and earth-moving operations going on in a military site in the area and because the municipality authorities were not allowed to enter the site, they only reported the event to their superiors."
It was stated in the municipality's documents that the municipality had nothing to do with the plot of land in question and that there had been no dispute between the Defense Ministry and the municipality over that property.
To keep the information of the site from leaking out, the MOIS ordered that the municipality's reports regarding the matter be destroyed and the employees who had prepared the reports be moved elsewhere.

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[Liberator]

Diplomats: Iran Readies Uranium for Nuke Enrichment Fri. 19 Nov 2004




Reuters

By Louis Charbonneau

VIENNA - Iran is preparing large amounts of uranium for enrichment, a process that can be used to make nuclear weapons, days before its promise to freeze all such activities takes effect, Western diplomats said on Friday.

"The Iranians are producing UF6 (uranium hexafluoride) like hell," a non-U.S. diplomat on the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told Reuters. "The machines are running."

Iran denied the information, which was confirmed by multiple diplomatic sources in Vienna.

"This is a sheer lie. I strongly reject it. In contrary, Iran is preparing itself to suspend production of UF6," Iran's top IAEA delegate Hossein Mousavian told Reuters in Tehran.

The apparent hasty production of large amounts of enriched uranium is bound to deepen suspicions over Iran, which Washington says is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

UF6 is the form of uranium that is fed into gas centrifuges, which purify uranium for use as fuel in nuclear power plants or weapons, by spinning at supersonic speeds. Iran had promised the European Union it would freeze enrichment and all related activities as of Nov 22.

Another diplomat described it as shocking news and said the IAEA's 35-member board of governors would have to seriously consider whether to report Tehran to the Security Council for possible sanctions.

"It is a grave matter that will have serious repercussions when we begin our (IAEA board) meeting on Thursday," a diplomat from another board state said.

URANIUM CONVERSION

Iran announced in September that it would process 37 tons of raw "yellowcake" uranium at its uranium conversion plant at Isfahan. Iran began processing several tons of yellowcake, but only produced uranium tetrafluoride (UF4), a precursor to UF6.

"It was only very recently they began making UF6," said one diplomat.

The 37 tons of yellowcake could produce sufficient UF6 for up to five weapons, if enriched to a point where it was of weapons-grade purity, experts say.

On Sunday, Tehran promised France, Britain and Germany it would freeze its enrichment program in a bid to ease concerns that its nuclear plans are aimed at producing atomic weapons -- a charge it denies -- and to escape a referral to the U.N. Security Council when the IAEA meets on Nov. 25.

Diplomats said they had expected Iran to freeze the program as of last Sunday, the day the deal was reached. But technically Iran had the right to continue conversion work until Monday, diplomats said.

Asked how this would affect relations between the EU trio and Iran, one diplomat close the Iran-EU talks said: "I simply don't know."

Iran's U.N. ambassador was not available for comment.

This news comes as Iran dismissed fresh allegations by a group of Iranian exiles who have reported accurately in the past that Tehran is running secret centrifuge and laser uranium enrichment facilities in Tehran for atomic weapons.

But Iran said the IAEA should ignore the comments, which come from the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a group listed by Washington as a terrorist organization.

"The IAEA should not damage its prestige by listening to this terrorist group's lies and taking it seriously," Mousavian said.

He said the charge that Iran is enriching uranium in secret in violation of its pledge to both the EU and the U.N. was an attempt to poison its relations with the IAEA.

Iran's Foreign Ministry on Friday also rejected claims by Secretary of State Colin Powell that Tehran had been working on ways to deliver an atomic warhead on a missile.

Diplomats close to the IAEA complained that NCRI allegations always come at the time of IAEA board meetings on Iran. However, several non-U.S. diplomats said this was irrelevant.

"If true, it's significant," one diplomat said.


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_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

Iran intent on weapons, says opposition Mon. 22 Nov 2004



United Press International

London, England - The Iranian regime has no intention of honoring its pledge to end nuclear activities, an Iranian opposition spokesman said Monday.

Farid Sulamani of the People's Mujahedin, or Mujahedin Khalq, told the BBC: "The Iran regime is intent on acquiring an atomic bomb and the world has a duty to stop that."

Sulamani said reliable sources at the highest level of the Iranian leadership spoke of the mullahs' continued pursuit of weapons to defend the regime and export the Islamic revolution to the world.

The remarks came as the IAEA confirmed Iran had fulfilled its commitment of relinquishing uranium enrichment and processing activities. However Sulamani insisted opposition and U.S. revelations in past days of undisclosed sites and material proved activities were continuing "as we speak."

The Iranian regime, he said, was "the poster child" for the threat of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

"They need nuclear weapons simply because they want to export their terrorism and anarchy to the world," he continued.

The exiled Mujahedin Khalq is listed by the U.S. State Department as a terror organization. However, the group insists it is working for a democratic Iran and is committed to the idea of a nuclear free Middle East.


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_________________
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


http://aryamehr11.blogspot.com/

[Liberator]

European Agreement Will Fail To Stop Iran From Getting WMDs, Critics Warn

By Marc Perelman


This week's nuclear deal between Iran and three European countries has triggered a wave of criticism from Israeli and Jewish communal officials, who warn that the pact will fail to halt Tehran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Iran's agreement with France, Germany and England requires Tehran to immediately freeze its uranium enrichment activities pending negotiations on a final accord. A final deal would reward Iran with political and economic benefits if Tehran provides verifiable guarantees that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.

This week's deal all but sinks American and Israeli hopes of quickly getting the United Nations Security Council to slap sanctions on Iran for allegedly violating its obligations under the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. The Bush administration, which has relied on European diplomacy to slow Tehran's efforts, voiced cautious support for the agreement. Israel and Jewish organizations, however, say that the interim deal simply will allow Iran to buy time.

Jerusalem is "obviously very disappointed" with the deal, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told reporters following his Monday meeting in Washington with outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell.

On Wednesday, an Iranian opposition group announced that Tehran was covertly enriching uranium at a military site. Given that the group's previous disclosures of Iranian nuclear activities have been confirmed, the claim seemed certain to bolster Israeli concerns.

"It is clear to us that they are trying to develop nuclear weapons and that it should be prevented," he said. "The Europeans are all the time talking about carrot and stick, but we see only the carrot, not the stick."

Shalom argued that Iran had purposely timed the latest deal to head off discussion of its nuclear program at the November 25 meeting of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran is promising to suspend its uranium enrichment program starting November 22, three days before the atomic agency's board of governors was expected to debate the Iranian nuclear dossier and the possibility of sending the matter to the Security Council.

"I told [Powell] that each time before a vote [the Iranians] do something," Shalom said. "This time they announced the suspension of enriching uranium. But we demand not suspension but full cessation."

While officially pushing for a tougher stance, the Bush administration has quietly supported the negotiations between the Europeans and Iran. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said at a daily briefing Tuesday that the pact was a useful step but needed to be implemented and verified.

Last year, Iran and the so-called "Euro-3" reached a similar agreement. But Tehran reneged after several months, fueling convictions in Israel and in hawkish American circles that Iran is in fact determined to acquire nuclear weapons.

While this week's deal is more sophisticated and leaves less room for interpretation, Israel and its supporters say that for Iran, the new pact is simply a delaying tactic. Tehran is just "buying time," said Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella group of 52 national organizations generally viewed as the community's consensus voice on Middle East affairs.

Hoenlein said that the deal failed to provide a mechanism for the verification and dismantling of Iran's nuclear weapons production infrastructure. He also complained about possible rewards that the Europeans are prepared to bestow on Iran, pointing to news reports suggesting that Europe offered Iran a role in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The text of the interim agreement announced this week did not provide any details regarding the package of rewards Iran would get in return for giving up its nuclear program.

The negotiations over a comprehensive agreement are expected to start next month.

Jewish organizational officials also complained that the interim agreement does not contain long-term guarantees that Iran would not seek to master the technical means to manufacture nuclear weapons. Hoenlein said that Iran could reach that stage within six months to a year, an estimate confirmed by an Israel official on condition of anonymity.

One Jewish communal leader who has been in touch with Bush administration officials said that "the Americans are very unhappy with the deal." The communal leader predicted that American officials would push for a final pact requiring the complete suspension of nuclear activity before May or June 2005, when Iran fully develops the ability to produce nuclear weapons.

For now, Jewish organizations are calling for heightened vigilance in holding Iran to its commitments.

"Given Iran's previous history of deception of the IAEA, we hope that this time, it is different," said Andrew Schwartz, a spokesman of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying powerhouse that has aggressively been warning lawmakers on Capitol Hill about Tehran's nuclear activities. "This agreement must be carefully monitored by the U.S. and the [U.N.'s atomic agency] in order to ensure Iranian compliance."

Pooya Dayanim, president of the Iranian Jewish Public Affairs Committee, a Los Angeles-based group with close ties to the Bush administration and opposition forces in Iran, noted that Iranian officials were already stressing that the suspension of its nuclear activities was temporary.

"My advice to the U.S. and other wise nations," Dayanim said, "is to assume the worst and draft their contingency plans accordingly."


Ori Nir contributed to this report from Washington.


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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" -J.F.K


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