Iranian resistance reviled new secret nuclear enrichment site in Iran
The Global Security Network, September 9, 2010
Alireza Jafarzadeh, Foreign Affairs Analyst and Iran Expert
Washington, Sep. 09 - Iran is secretly building a uranium
enrichment site near Qazvin, 120 km west of Tehran, Iranian
Resistance said on Thursday.
The information was unveiled at a press conference organized
by the Iran Policy Committee in Washington.
According to the reports by the People's Mojahedin
Organization of Iran (PMOI) The Behjatabad-Abyek site,
code-named '311', is 85 percent complete and can fit several
thousand centrifuges, Iranian military personnel secretly
began constructing the site, deep inside mountains between
the cities of Abyek and Qazvin, in 2005.
Iranian opposition official Soona Samsami named Major
General Hassan Firouzabadi, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, and Defence Minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as top
officials involved in the secret project.
Soona Samsami added that "So far the regime has spent 100
million dollars on the project and the International Atomic
Energy Agency had deliberately been kept uninformed of the
site by the Iranian authorities".
Alireza Jafarzadeh, added: "The site has a tunnel as the
main entrance, 8 meters wide and nearly 200 meters long. It
leads deep inside the ground to three large halls, 16-20
meters wide and 200 meters long. The site also has an exit
shaft and a vertical shaft. There are halls and office space
inside the tunnels". The site includes facilities to install
centrifuges and workshops for nuclear work.
AFP reported that "Alireza Jafarzadeh, presented satellite
photographs of the suspect site, near Qazvin, to reporters
in Washington. His group called it the Behjatabad-Abyek
site, named for nearby towns. "This is certainly part of the
secret weapons program," . AFP added that he and Soona
Samsami, who played a role in revealing a secret site in
Tehran where inspectors later discovered Iran was secretly
manufacturing centrifuges, alleged that some of the same
companies involved in building the Qum facility were
involved in this project. But Mr. Jafarzadeh said he could
not identify the sources of his information inside the
country for fear of jeopardizing their safety.
Centrifuges spin at supersonic speed to enrich uranium.
Highly-enriched uranium is the main component of a nuclear
bomb.
The revelation comes as an embarrassment to Tehran which on
Tuesday ticked the UN atomic watchdog for a report critical
of its lack of cooperation with international inspectors.
AFP also reported that "Iran has declared that it plans to
build 10 new enrichment sites, far more production capacity
than it would need for its nascent nuclear power projects.
Under the rules of the International Atomic Energy Agency,
Iran would be required to reveal those construction plans
well in advance; the Iranians say they no longer subscribe
to that provision of the agency's rules. The agency could
demand access to the new facility, but it is unclear if the
Iranians would permit such an inspection. "
The Iranian Resistance was the first to blow the whistle on
the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the Arak
heavy-water plant in 2002 and subsequently made a string of
stunning revelations on other nuclear sites in Iran,
triggering the inspection of Iranian nuclear sites by the
IAEA and leading to four sets of sanctions resolutions by
the UN Security Council.
Alireza Jafarzadeh is a FOX News Channel Foreign Affairs
Analyst and the author of "The
Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear
Crisis" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
Jafarzadeh has revealed Iran's terrorist network in Iraq and
its terror training camps since 2003. He first disclosed the
existence of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the
Arak heavy water facility in August 2002.
