IRAN / BELGIUM: Ahmadinejad determined to continue nuclear line as opposition issues bomb warning

Record ID: 312458

  • Title: IRAN / BELGIUM: Ahmadinejad determined to continue nuclear line as opposition issues bomb warning
  • Date: 21st February 2008
  • Summary: (EU) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (FEBRUARY20, 2008) (REUTERS) VIEW OF HOTEL WHERE NEWS CONFERENCE OF THE IRANIAN OPPOSITION WAS HELD
  • Embargoed: 7th March 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVASWLDL878NZR4RSHW6PKWF14D
  • Story Text: An Iranian opposition group called on Wednesday (February 20) for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to immediately inspect facilities in Iran which it said were at the core of an accelerated nuclear weapons programme.
    The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) dismissed a December U.S. National Intelligence estimate that Tehran stopped trying to make a nuclear warhead in 2003, shortly after the group first revealed the country's nuclear enrichment activity.
    It charged that Iran had established a new command and control centre for the programme coded-named Lavizan-2 at Mojdeh on the southeastern outskirts of Tehran last April, near the site of a previous facility razed after its exposure.
    The NCRI said the Iranian government was also actively pursuing production of nuclear warheads at a complex code-named B1-Nori-8500 at Khojir about 20 km (12 miles) further southeast.
    At a Brussels news conference, NCRI foreign affairs chief Mohammad Mohaddessin said his information came from "hundreds" of sources including people working at the sites and within the offices of the Iranian leadership and bureaucracy.
    He showed satellite images and called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect the sites immediately and interview the scientists running them.
    "The Iranian regime is undoubtedly developing the nuclear bomb.
    None of the essential work has been halted ... All three parts have been speeded up," he said, referring to uranium enrichment, weaponisation and missile development.
    "We would like to urgently ask the IAEA ... to immediately send inspectors to the sites," he said.
    "Time is running out to stop the regime acquiring a nuclear bomb.
    If we do not act today, tomorrow might be too late."
    The NCRI, the political arm of the Iraq-based People's Mujahideen guerrilla group, is on the U.S. and European Union lists of outlawed terrorist organisations.
    Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful and aimed at producing electricity, but its concealment of uranium enrichment activities until 2003 and curbs on U.N. inspections have fuelled international suspicions that it is intended to produce weapons.
    Earlier in Iran, president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran's determination to continue its disputed nuclear programme had brought major powers "to their knees".
    In another defiant speech ahead of an International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran due on Friday, Ahmadinejad said Iran would ignore calls by major powers to halt sensitive nuclear work that has led to two rounds of U.N. sanctions.
    "From the Iranian point of view, today the nuclear case is closed," he told a cheering crowd in a televised speech.
    The IAEA report is expected to be released this week. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said the agency has made "good progress" in resolving outstanding issues.
    Iran insists its nuclear effort is entirely peaceful and has refused to halt the work. Under Iran's system of clerical rule the final word on nuclear policy lies with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei but the leader has also said Iran will not stop.
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