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Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Iran Got Black Mkt Nuclear Plan
November 17, 2004
Dow Jones Newswires
The Associated Press
Iran bought blueprints of a nuclear bomb from the same black-market network that gave Libya such diagrams and it continues to enrich uranium despite a commitment to suspend the technology that can be used for atomic weapons, an Iranian opposition group said Wednesday.
Farid Soleimani, a senior official for the National Council for Resistance in Iran , said the diagram was provided by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani head of the nuclear network linked to clandestine programs both in Iran and in Libya.
"He gave them the same weapons design he gave the Libyans as well as more in terms of weapons design," Soleimani told reporters in Vienna. He said the diagram and related material on how to make nuclear weapons were handed to the Iranians between 1994 and 1996.
Mark Gwozdecky, spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency said, "we follow up every solid lead," adding that the U.N. nuclear watchdog would have no further comment.
But a diplomat familiar with the agency and its investigations both into Libya's and Iran 's nuclear program said the IAEA has long feared Iran might have received bomb-making blueprints from Khan.
"The IAEA has found that Iran received pretty much the same things Libya did from his network," said the diplomat, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. "The one thing that they have not been able to find was the blueprint."
Libya bought engineers' drawings of a Chinese-made bomb through the Khan network as part of its covert nuclear program that it renounced last year.
Iran says it doesn't have such drawings, and no evidence has been found to dispute that claim. But experts say it is possible Iran already possesses a copy.
Former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright, in comments earlier this year, described the Chinese design Libya owed up to having as something "that would not take a lot of modifying" to fit it on Iran 's successfully tested Shahab-3 ballistic missile.
On the allegations Iran continued enrichment at a secret site near Lavizan-Shian outside of Tehran, the diplomat said the agency was looking into the possibility of equipment moved from Lavizan-Shian to an unknown location.
In a possible allusion to the group's claims, a report detailing IAEA investigations into Iran 's nuclear programs prepared for the agency's Nov. 25 board meeting notes Iran has failed to produce a trailer that apparently contained nuclear equipment at Lavizan-Shian for IAEA inspection.
The IAEA report also said Iran has "declined to provide a list of equipment used" at Lavizan-Shian, which the government says was home to research on how to reduce casualties in case of nuclear attack.
"The agency investigation of Lavizan...is still open," the diplomat said. "They are still pursuing what happened to the equipment at Lavizan."
Detailing what he said were Tehran's plans to make nuclear weapons, Soleinmani said that "as we speak the site continues to produce (enriched) uranium."
"The site...is not the only one that is being kept secret," he said. "There is a huge network devoted to this activity in Iran , and unfortunately the IAEA has hitherto understood the apparatus in only a small way."
Soleimani's organization is the political wing of the People's Mujahedeen, banned in the U.S. as a terrorist organization. While much of its information hasn't been confirmed, it was instrumental in 2002 in revealing Iran 's enrichment program at Natanz.
The opposition group says Lavizan-Shian was home to the Center for Readiness and New Defense Technology and was part of the covert attempt to develop nuclear weapons and included elements of Iran 's centrifuge enrichment program.
On Wednesday, Soleimani said that centrifuges and other equipment needed to produce enriched uranium had been covertly moved to the new site, near Lavizan-Shian but within Tehran city limits.
Enrichment at low levels generates fuel for nuclear power - and Iran says that is its sole interest. But the U.S. and other countries suspect Iran wants to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium for nuclear warheads.
Lavizan-Shian was razed by the Iranian government earlier this year as IAEA inspectors were preparing to visit it. The government says it was destroyed to make way for a park. But suspicions remain about the extent of the work done there - including the removal of top soil, which reduced the effectiveness of environmental samples taken by IAEA inspectors looking for unreported nuclear activity at the site.
Iran announced a full suspension of enrichment late last week, and the agency said it would police that commitment starting early next week, just ahead of the Nov. 25 IAEA board meeting.
The suspension pledge reduced U.S. hopes of having the board refer Iran to the U.N. Security council for alleged violations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The agreement, detailed Monday by Iran and in a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, commits Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment and related activities within a week in return for European guarantees that Iran has the right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program.
Under the agreement reached with the Europeans, a working committee would be formed within weeks to define what economic, technological, security and nuclear cooperation the European Union will provide in exchange for the enrichment freeze. It will report back within three months.
While the deal commits Iran to suspend all enrichment activities only for the time it takes to finalize a comprehensive agreement, European diplomats say they hope that - by engaging Iran - the freeze will turn into a long-term arrangement.
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