UK affirms Iranian regime resumed nuclear weapons program between 2004 and 2005 contrary to a US National Intelligence Estimate 2007 report
In December 2007, following the release of the NIE report, Iranian Resistance declared that the regime had halted its nuclear activities for a single year following revelations by Iranian Resistance and that it restarted it in 2004
Wrong assessments either result from deceptive tactics of the Iranian regime or are designed to justify appeasement and concessions toward the Iranian regime
NCRI – The Financial times reported Wednesday, “Britain’s intelligence services say that Iran has been secretly designing a nuclear warhead ‘since late 2004 or early 2005. The UK now judges that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, ordered the resumption of the country’s weapons programme four years ago.”
While referring to the NIE report which claimed that the Iranian regime had “halted weapons design work in 2003 and probably has not restarted that effort as of 2007,” the British daily added, “Britain has always privately expressed skepticism about the US assessment on Iran but is only now firmly asserting that the weapons programme restarted in 2004-05.”
Thus, it has once again become apparent, as the Iranian Resistance has always declared, that assessments over the past couple of years about the halting of a part of the nuclear projects by the Iranian regime were completely inaccurate. These false assessments have either fallen victim to the deceptive tactics of the religious fascism ruling Iran or else stem from the policy of appeasement and are meant to justify continued negotiations and concessions to the regime.
Following its release on December 5, 2007, the Iranian Resistance declared the NIE report is fraught with inaccurate and wrong information. On December 11, 2007, at a press conference in Brussels, Mr. Mohammad Mohaddessin, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said, “What seems to be a halt in weapon design activities has not resulted from a decision by the mullahs’ regime but it was caused by the revelation of Lavizan-Shian nuclear website by the Iranian Resistance in May 2003.”
In September 2005, in a detailed report about the mullahs’ nuclear projects, the Iranian Resistance said, “Following revelations by the Iranian Resistance about the Shian nuclear site, which has a coordinating role in the progress toward nuclear weapons, the mullahs’ plans were delayed for at least a year.”
On December 11, the Wall Street Journal quoted Mr. Mohaddessin as saying, "What the first part of the NIE says is right, that they halted their weaponization research in 2003 … But the second part, that they stopped until at least the middle of 2007, is wrong. They scattered the weaponization program to other locations and restarted in 2004.”
The Wall Street Journal added, “The NCRI said in a report on Iran's nuclear program in September 2005 that the Lavisan facility had been closed, setting back the regime's weaponization program by approximately one year. Mr. Mohaddessin said his group was certain no other Iranian nuclear facilities were closed in 2003.”
In May 2003, at a press conference in Washington, seven research centers of the Iranian regime in Lavisan-shian nuclear site that were involved in research of non-conventional weapons was unveiled.
Since the Iranian regime could not even come close to presenting the facilities at Lavisan-shian site as part of a center for non-military nuclear activities, it completely destroyed the site in late 2003. The regime razed the buildings and surrounding roads and sidewalks, even turning over the soil and transferring it to unknown locations.
Therefore, after the destruction of the 15 year old “Center for Advanced Defense Technologies” in autumn 2003, the Iranian regime’s nuclear activities received a huge blow, forcing it to make serious changes and heighten secrecy of its nuclear activities. After destroying the nuclear site, the activities were relocated to the “Center for Readiness and Advanced Defense Technologies (i.e. Lavisan-II).” Subsequently, the new site was revealed by the Iranian Resistance in April and November of 2004.
Furthermore, both before and after the 2007 NIE report, the Iranian Resistance has revealed various parts of Iranian Regimes’ nuclear weapons design programs, including the following:
• In December 2004, the Iranian Resistance revealed that work is being done to build a nuclear warhead at the Hemmat facility at a section known as Karimi with code # 2500;
• In February 2005, the Iranian Resistance exposed the regime’s research on the production of a nuclear weapons detonation device using Polonium and Beryllium, as well as the people involved in the project;
• In March 2005, the Iranian Resistance revealed that the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has allocated $3 billion to buy three nuclear warheads;
• In August 2005, the Iranian Resistance exposed the regime’s secret attempts to smuggle and produce Maraging steel through its Ministry of Defense. The metal is used in building nuclear weapons;
• Also in August 2005, the Iranian Resistance revealed the clerical regime’s attempts to obtain ditrium and triteum, which can increase the power of a nuclear blast;
• In February 2008, the Iranian Resistance unveiled at a press conference in Brussels the existence of Center of Command and Coordination of Nuclear Projects at the Lavizan site, which was meant to produce a nuclear weapon, as well as the Center for Building Nuclear Warheads at a site named Nouri in Khojir district;
• On September 24, 2009, at a press conference in Paris, the Iranian Resistance exposed two secret sites in East and Southern Tehran which were involved in producing heavy blasts as triggers for nuclear explosion.
Now all signs indicate that the clerical regime’s activities to acquire a nuclear weapon have intensified. The vulnerable and helpless regime is in dire need of this to guarantee its survival. In such circumstances, negotiations with this regime over the nuclear project will not only fail to bear fruit, but will also buy more time for the regime to inch closer to a nuclear weapon.
The time has come for the international community to comprehend the immediate threat of a regime armed with a nuclear weapon, and impose comprehensive arms, oil, technological, and diplomatic sanctions on the regime as the first necessary and immediate step to prevent the regime from obtaining a nuclear bomb.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
October 1, 2009
