March 24, 2005
By Louis Charbonneau
Metro News, Canada
PARIS (Reuters) - An Iranian exile accused Tehran on Thursday of secretly purifying uranium for use in nuclear weapons at a recently-constructed underground facility at a military complex called Parchin.
"Iran has completed an underground tunnel-like facility in Parchin, which is now engaged in laser enrichment," said Alireza Jafarzadeh, an Iranian exile who has reported accurately in the past about hidden atomic facilities in Iran.
"This underground site is camouflaged and built in an area of Parchin that deals with the chemical industry," he told Reuters by telephone from Washington, citing "well-placed sources inside the Iranian regime."
Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment, and Tehran has repeatedly denied carrying out any nuclear work at Parchin.
Jafarzadeh said the enrichment work was linked to "Iran's secret nuclear weapons program."
Enrichment is a process of purifying uranium for use as fuel for power plants or weapons. Iran says it no longer works on laser enrichment, a high-tech but inefficient enrichment method.
The allegation, if true, would be a breach of Iran's promise to halt all activities linked to uranium enrichment while in talks with the European Union about the future of Iran's nuclear program, a Western diplomat said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, he also said it would be a "clear violation" of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which requires that the construction and operation of such facilities be declared to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Washington, which accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons, believes Tehran has been conducting tests and experiments related to nuclear bombmaking at Parchin.
Tehran denies wanting weapons and insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electricity.
PROTECTION FROM U.S., ISRAELI ATTACK
Iran has said a tunnel complex under a uranium conversion plant at Isfahan had been built to store equipment for protection in case of U.S. or Israeli attack.
As the former spokesman for the Iranian exile group, the National Coalition of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Jafarzadeh revealed in August 2002 information about two hidden sites in Iran -- an underground uranium enrichment site at Natanz and a heavy-water production plant at Arak.
Iran later declared both sites to the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Jafarzadeh said the underground enrichment site was in a section of Parchin known as "Plan 1."
Corey Hinderstein, an expert at the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security think-tank, has analysed numerous satellite images of Parchin and confirmed that she had detected some tunnelling activity at the site.
"We did see an area of tunnelling or digging at Parchin," she said, but added that she was unable to say whether this was the specific part of the site Jafarzadeh was referring to.
However, Hinderstein said an analysis of satellite images of a site in Tehran called Lavizan II had revealed nothing to support a similar NCRI charge about clandestine enrichment work.
The IAEA declined to comment, though spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said the agency "follows up every credible lead."
Iran has been reluctant to allow inspectors from the IAEA into Parchin, which lies some 30 km (19 miles) southeast of Tehran. Earlier this year Iran permitted limited inspections at the site but refused to allow IAEA experts to return when they requested a follow-up inspection.
Iran is under no legal obligation to permit inspections at sites like Parchin, which are not officially or demonstrably linked to Tehran's nuclear program.
http://www.metronews.ca/reuters_international.asp?id=63649