Group Says Iran Has Secret Nuclear Arms Program

NY TIMES - Nov. 16, 2004

An Iranian opposition group says it has
new evidence that Iran is producing enriched uranium at a covert
Defense Ministry facility in Tehran that has not been disclosed to
United Nations inspectors.

The
group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran, is planning to
announce its finding in Paris on Wednesday. The group says that
inspection of the site would demonstrate that Iran is secretly trying
to produce nuclear weapons even while promising to freeze a critical
part of its declared nuclear program, which it maintains is intended
purely for civilian purposes.

A senior official of the group, Muhammad
Mohaddessin, said in a telephone interview late on Tuesday that the
group had shared the new information "very recently'' with the
International Atomic Energy Agency. But he and other officials of the
group said it had not discussed the matter with the United States
government, and its claims could not be verified.

Iran's mission to the United Nations did not return messages seeking comment on the assertion.

The group, based in Paris, is the
political arm of the People's Mujahedeen, which is listed by the United
States government as a terrorist organization because of its
involvement in attacks on Americans in the 1970's. But the group also
has a successful track record in gathering intelligence on Iran, and
was the first, in 2002, to disclose the existence of what was then the
secret Iranian nuclear site at Natanz.

United Nations inspectors "should not be fooled or deceived by the Iranian regime,'' Mr. Mohaddessin said.

A spokesman in Washington for the National
Council for Resistance in Iran provided a seven-page summary of the
assertion to The New York Times.

It says that the previously undisclosed
site, in northeastern Tehran, covers 60 acres and houses biological and
chemical warfare projects as well as nuclear activity. It says that the
site, known as the Modern Defensive Readiness and Technology Center,
now houses operations previously carried out at another Defense
Ministry site in Tehran that was destroyed by the Iranian government
this year before international inspectors could visit it.

The assertion by the opposition group is
surfacing in a week in which France, Britain and Germany announced a
formal agreement with Iran committing the country to freeze a critical
part of its nuclear program in exchange for an array of possible
rewards.

As part of the pact
with the Europeans, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran
had promised to suspend its uranium enrichment program starting a week
from now. But the agency said it could not rule out the possibility
that Iran was conducting covert activities.

"All the declared nuclear material in Iran
has been accounted for, and therefore such material is not diverted to
prohibited activities," the agency said in a report, referring to
possible Iran nuclear weapons activity. "The agency is, however, not in
a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials
or activities in Iran."

The
United States and European countries have argued that Iran's nuclear
program is intended to produce weapons. Iran's leadership has insisted
that is not engaged in a nuclear weapons program but has the sovereign
right to enrich uranium.

Officials of the opposition group said
they believed that the Iranian Defense Ministry and Revolutionary
Guards Corps were pursuing their program in secret and had not told
Iran's atomic energy agency of the existence of the facility in Tehran.