Iranian
dissidents say Tehran moving nuclear research site
PARIS | Thu Oct 10, 2013 7:20am EDT
يك گروه تبعيدي اپوزيسيون ايراني روز پنجشنبه گفتند كه آنها اطلاعاتي در مورد يك مركز تحقيقات تبديل انرژي اتمي به سلاح در تهران را دارند كه دولت در حال جابجا كردن آن براي جلوگيري از فاش شدن آن قبل از مذاكراتش با قدرتهاي جهاني ميباشد
(Reuters) - An exiled Iranian
opposition group said on Thursday it had information about what it said was a
center for nuclear weaponisation research in Tehran that the government was
moving to avoid detection ahead of negotiations with world powers.
The dissident National Council
of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
exposed Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy water facility
at Arak in 2002. But analysts say it has a chequered track record and a clear
political agenda.
An accusation it made in July
about a secret underground nuclear site under construction in Iran draw a cautious international
response, withFrance merely
saying it would look into it.
The Islamic Republic says its
nuclear energy program is entirely peaceful and rejects U.S. and Israeli
accusations that it is seeking the capability to make nuclear weapons.
The NCRI's latest allegation
comes just a few days before Iran and six major powers are to
meet in Geneva to try to end years of deadlock in a dispute over the Islamic
state's nuclear program.
The election of Hassan Rouhani,
a relative moderate, as new Iranian president has raised hopes of progress
towards a negotiated settlement of the decade-old nuclear row.
The Paris-based NCRI, citing
information from sources inside Iran, said a nuclear weaponisation research and
planning center it called SPND was being moved to a large, secure site in a
defense ministry complex in Tehran about 1.5 km (1 mile) away from its former
location.
It said the center employed
about 100 researchers, engineers and experts and handled small-scale
experiments with radioactive material and was in charge of research into the
weaponisation of nuclear weapons.
"There is a link between
this transfer and the date of Geneva (talks) because the regime needed to avoid
the risk of visits by (U.N. nuclear) inspectors," Mehdi Abrichamtchi, who
compiled the report for the NCRI, told a news conference.
(Reporting by Nicholas Vinocur;
Editing by Fredrik Dahl and Robin Pomeroy)
