Iran Building Undisclosed Enrichment Facility, Group Alleges
Global Security Newswire, September 09, 2010
Alireza Jafarzadeh, Foreign Affairs Analyst and Iran Expert
An Iranian opposition group has determined the nation is
building an undisclosed uranium enrichment facility near a
city roughly 75 miles from Tehran, Fox News reported today
(see GSN, Sept. 8).
(Sep. 9) - Iranian opposition figure Alireza Jafarzadeh
points out elements of an alleged clandestine uranium
enrichment facility in Iran during a news conference today
at the National Press Club in Washington (Mandel Ngan/Getty
Images).
Iran began work on the Behjatabad-Abyek site roughly five
years ago near the city of Qazvin, and construction is about
85 percent finished, members of the Iran Policy Committee
said today, citing information obtained by the Iranian
resistance group People's Mujahedeen.
The International Atomic Energy Agency oversees activities
at two other Iranian enrichment facilities in an effort to
prevent diversion of resources from the sites for military
activities. The United States and other nations suspect the
Persian Gulf nation's nuclear program is geared toward
weapons development; Tehran has maintained its atomic
activities are strictly peaceful.
Iranian activist Soona Samsami said the alleged facility was
more significant than Iran's Qum enrichment site, which was
placed under U.N. monitoring after its existence was
publicly revealed in 2009.
There is no indication that enrichment centrifuges have so
far been installed in the site, speakers said (see GSN,
Sept. 25, 2009; Fox News, Sept. 9).
Samsami and former National Council of Resistance of Iran
spokesman Alireza Jafarzadeh said they had provided data on
the facility to the Obama administration and the U.N.
nuclear watchdog, Agence France-Presse reported (Agence
France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Sept. 9).
Obama administration sources could not say today whether the
group's assertion appeared on the level, Fox News reported.
Washington intends to "study" the data, State Department
spokesman P.J. Crowley said.
Iranian opposition figure Alireza Jafarzadeh points out elements of an alleged clandestine uranium enrichment facility in Iran during a news conference today at the National Press Club in Washington (Mandel Ngan/Getty Images).
The People's Mujahedeen has been a source for information
about the existence of other Iranian nuclear sites.
"The MEK has made pronouncements about Iranian facilities in
the past -- some accurate, some not," Crowley said (Fox
News).
Meanwhile, Iran indicated it would not adopt rules allowing
closer monitoring of its nuclear program if the U.N.
Security Council continues efforts aimed at pressuring the
government to halt elements of the atomic operations, the
nation's Press TV reported yesterday.
Yukiya Amano, IAEA director general, in a report this week
reaffirmed his call for Iran to adopt the Additional
Protocol to its safeguards agreement with the agency. Tehran
in 2006 stopped informally abiding by the protocol, which
grants IAEA inspectors greater access to information on a
nation's nuclear work and permits snap audits of its nuclear
facilities.
"The IAEA is seeking implementation of Additional Protocol
and Iran will not implement this protocol as long as the
[Security Council] is involved in Iran's nuclear issue. We
ask the IAEA director general, Yukiya Amano, to understand
this fact," Asharq al-Awsat quoted Ali Asghar Soltanieh,
Iran's ambassador to the agency, as saying.
Soltanieh reaffirmed his nation's willingness to discuss a
potential exchange of Iranian uranium, blaming demands by
world powers for delaying such talks.
"Such behaviors and actions have obliged Iran to supply its
required enriched uranium," Iran's Mehr news organization
quoted him as saying. Iran in February began enriching
uranium to 20 percent, ostensibly for producing medical
isotopes at a medical research reactor in Tehran. The United
States and other Western powers, though, have feared the
process could help Iran produce nuclear-weapon material,
which has an enrichment level around 90 percent.
One plan -- negotiated in May by Iran, Brazil and Turkey --
calls for the Middle Eastern state to store 1,200 kilograms
of its low-enriched uranium in Turkey for one year; other
countries would be expected within that period to provide
nuclear material refined for the medical reactor in exchange
for the Iranian material.
The arrangement appeared similar to another proposal,
formulated last year by the International Atomic Energy
Agency, that was intended to defer Iran's enrichment
activities long enough to more fully address U.S. and
European concerns about its potential nuclear bomb-making
capability. Tehran ultimately rejected the IAEA proposal
worked out with France, Russia and the United States. Those
nations, known as the "Vienna group," subsequently expressed
concerns about the later agreement.
Soltanieh said this week's IAEA report does not reflect any
inadequacy in Iran's work with the monitoring agency. "Iran
will continue its cooperation with the IAEA in accordance
with the signed agreements and not beyond that," he said
(Press TV, Sept. 8).
Elsewhere, the Obama administration yesterday praised South
Korea's decision to adopt independent economic penalties
against Iran, AFP reported. The measures announced yesterday
would target 24 individuals and 102 organizations, including
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard and a bank responsible for
processing most of South Korea's exports to the Middle
Eastern nation.
"These actions strengthen the growing international resolve
to prevent proliferation and Iran's development of nuclear
weapons and to press Iran to return to serious negotiations
on its nuclear program and meet its international
obligations," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in released
remarks.
"We welcome in particular the Republic of Korea's decision
to impose sanctions in a number of Iranian economic sectors
that have been exploited for proliferation-related purposes
by entities and individuals of concern ... and the
establishment of a prior authorization system for financial
transactions with Iran," the officials said in the joint
statement.
"The Republic of Korea's robust inspections framework, its
prohibition on the export of strategic, controlled items and
its prohibition of new investments or sale of goods,
services and technology to Iran's energy sector will also
further limit Iran's ability to conduct its illicit
activities," they said.
"Additional pressure on Iran's leaders is essential to
making clear the choice Iran faces and to achieving the goal
of a diplomatic resolution," the officials added. "The
United States encourages other states to join this growing
international consensus and take the necessary steps to
ensure comprehensive implementation of [U.N. Security
Council Resolution 1929]," the U.N. body's fourth sanctions
resolution against Iran.
South Korea's implementation of new sanctions broadcasts "a
very strong signal to Iran that not only do we continue to
have concerns about the nature of its nuclear activities but
we're taking aggressive action to further isolate Iran,"
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said (Agence
France-Presse II/Spacewar.com, Sept. 9).
"We believe that this concerted action, in terms of full
implementation of 1929 as well as national steps that have
been announced by the United States, by Japan, now today by
Korea, will put additional pressure on Iran to, we hope,
come to the table prepared to engage constructively and
address the concerns the international community has," the
Yonhap News Agency quoted Crowley as saying.
State Department special adviser for nonproliferation and
arms control Robert Einhorn "will be traveling soon to
China," the spokesman added. During a visit to South Korea
last month, Einhorn sought Seoul's Korea's cooperation in
placing economic pressure on Iran (see GSN, Aug. 4; Yonhap
News Agency, Sept. 9).
Beijing, though, today voiced its disapproval of the
penalties adopted by Seoul, AFP reported.
"We don't approve of unilateral sanctions on Iran," Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said. "We hope
relevant parties can stick to the direction of diplomatic
resolution and seek an effective resolution through dialogue
and negotiations" (Agence France-Presse III/Spacewar.com,
Sept. 9).
U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) warned China against
exploiting business opportunities opened as other nations
have sought to isolate Iran, Foreign Policy reported. He
warned that Capitol Hill would use powers provided in
legislation passed in June to penalize Chinese firms that
rush to do business with Tehran.
"Chinese companies have unfortunately in the past been
allowed by their government to pursue their commercial
self-interest in Iran, exploiting the restraint of other
countries," Lieberman said in a prepared statement. "If this
trend continues, China will isolate itself from the
responsible international community in Asia and around the
world" (Josh Rogin, Foreign Policy, Sept. 8).
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.
