USA TODAY – Feb. 24, 2015 – An Iranian dissident group accused Tehran on Tuesday of hiding a secret nuclear facility even as U.S. negotiators signaled they’re ready to make a concession to reach a deal with Iran on its disputed nuclear program.
In Washington, the National Council of Resistance of Iran showed satellite imagery and photographs of what it said was a secret facility buried several stories under a military base on the outskirts of Tehran. The facility, protected by vault-like doors and anti-radiation shielding, is used for research and development, and advanced machinery produces enriched uranium, said the group’s spokesman, Alireza Jafarzadeh.
The secrecy of the program and its underground location are signs that its purpose is “for a nuclear weapons project,” said the NCRI’s U.S. representative, Soona Samsami.
She called on the United States to demand that Iran provide the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency immediate access to the site.
“If the USA is serious about preventing the Iranian regime from getting nuclear weapons, it must make continuing talks dependent on letting the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to immediately visit this site,” Samsami said.
The United States and other Western nations have cited evidence that Iran has harbored a secret weapons program, but Iran denies it.
Clare Lopez, a former CIA analyst at the Center for Security Policy, a Washington think-tank, said the NCRI has a solid track record for revealing secret Iranian nuclear facilities. It first revealed nuclear facilities at Natanz and under a mountain in Fordo and a suspected site at Parchin that has since been razed.
The new revelation “means (the Iranians) are negotiating in bad faith,” Lopez said.