On Wednesday, November 18, the UN nuclear watchdog once again asked Iran to explain the origin of uranium particles found at an undeclared site south of Tehran. Previously, Iranian authorities rejected the existing site, claiming there is a carpet-cleaning facility.
In February 2019, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors took environmental samples that showed traces of processed uranium at the “carpet-cleaning” factory. Since then, the Vienna-based UN watchdog and the United States seek Tehran’s answers on where those traces came from. However, the ayatollahs evade the questions.
“We believe they need to give us information which is credible. What they are telling us from a technical point of view doesn’t add up, so they need to clarify this,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told a news conference during a quarterly meeting of his agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors.
Earlier, on October 16, the Iranian coalition opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)-U.S. Representative Office exposed two secret sites in Tehran and Isfahan provinces.
“New information received from sources within the Iranian regime reveals that a new center has been built to continue its work for the weaponization of the Iranian regime’s nuclear program,” said Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the NCRI-U.S. Representative, in a press conference.
Using solid info from network in Iran who were proven accurate in the past, as well as satellite imagery we revealed a new nuclear site in Sorkheh-Hessar, east Tehran run by #Iran regime's bomb-making entity, SPND & IRGC role in Abadeh site #iransanctions https://t.co/m4CXCP5PmU
— Alireza Jafarzadeh (@A_Jafarzadeh) October 16, 2020
Jafarzadeh explained the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (Sazman-e Pazhouheshhaye Novin-e Defa’i), known by its Persian acronym SPND, is the institution within the Ministry of Defense pursuing this project.
He revealed that the SPND has built up new sites in the Sorkheh-Hessar region, east of Tehran, and in the Abadeh region, Isfahan province. “Since the mid-1990s, the IRGC has gained the control of a large area north of the town of Abadeh where it has built a site linked to the plan to build nuclear warheads. The plan is called AMAD (currently SPND). To this end, the IRGC controlled vast areas of land, including some coal mines,” Jafarzadeh revealed.
In 2015, the world’s major powers were optimistic that an accord could halt the ayatollahs’ longstanding thirsty for nuclear weapons. However, the time displays that not only the Iranian government did not refrain from efforts to weaponize its nuclear programs but also abused generous reliefs to expand its controversial projects.
The ayatollahs consider nuclear weapons as insurance for their survival and the expansion of their regional influence. However, the people of Iran apprehensively see their national assets go in vain when the country severely needs to advance its health apparatus.
Unfortunately, Tehran’s rulers have taken hostage the people’s fate, health, and lives to blackmail the international community on economic concessions. The bitter experience of the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), did never improve the Iranian people’s livelihood and welfare. Instead, it boosted the authoritarians’ power to apply more suppression and export terrorism abroad.
