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Iran Moves Uranium Enrichment to Secret Plants -Exile
Tue Mar 9, 7:10 PM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!
[article snipped in places]
By Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA (Reuters) - An exile who has previously released key nuclear information about Iran said on Tuesday Iranian leaders decided at a recent meeting to seek an atom bomb "at all costs" and begin enriching uranium at secret plants,
Alireza Jafarzadeh, who disclosed in August 2002 that Iran had a hidden uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy-water plant at Arak, told Reuters his new information came from the same "well-informed sources inside Iran."
He said the Islamic republic's top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gathered after the father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea (news - web sites).
"At this recent meeting, they decided to join the nuclear (weapons) club at all costs," Jafarzadeh said, adding that the leaders decided it was "vital for the survival" of the country.
"They set a timetable to get a bomb by the end of 2005 at the latest," he said, speaking from Washington.
Jafarzadeh said the people at the meeting said they would have to stop enriching uranium at Natanz, as Tehran had promised France, Britain and Germany in October. But in order to make the weapons-grade uranium needed for a bomb, they decided to move their enrichment to smaller secret sites in the country.
"They will heavily rely on smaller secret enrichment sites at Karaj, Esfahan and at other places," he said.
Jafarzadeh said Tehran was in a better position to hide the full extent of its centrifuge enrichment program from U.N. inspectors now it was able to build centrifuges domestically, without relying on imports.
Jafarzadeh said the Iranian leaders also agreed at their secret meeting to adopt a generally "aggressive and confrontational approach" with the IAEA before "muscling their way to the finish line to get the bomb."
ap article
Tue Mar 9, 7:10 PM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!
[article snipped in places]
By Louis Charbonneau
VIENNA (Reuters) - An exile who has previously released key nuclear information about Iran said on Tuesday Iranian leaders decided at a recent meeting to seek an atom bomb "at all costs" and begin enriching uranium at secret plants,
Alireza Jafarzadeh, who disclosed in August 2002 that Iran had a hidden uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy-water plant at Arak, told Reuters his new information came from the same "well-informed sources inside Iran."
He said the Islamic republic's top leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gathered after the father of Pakistan's atomic weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, admitted leaking nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea (news - web sites).
"At this recent meeting, they decided to join the nuclear (weapons) club at all costs," Jafarzadeh said, adding that the leaders decided it was "vital for the survival" of the country.
"They set a timetable to get a bomb by the end of 2005 at the latest," he said, speaking from Washington.
Jafarzadeh said the people at the meeting said they would have to stop enriching uranium at Natanz, as Tehran had promised France, Britain and Germany in October. But in order to make the weapons-grade uranium needed for a bomb, they decided to move their enrichment to smaller secret sites in the country.
"They will heavily rely on smaller secret enrichment sites at Karaj, Esfahan and at other places," he said.
Jafarzadeh said Tehran was in a better position to hide the full extent of its centrifuge enrichment program from U.N. inspectors now it was able to build centrifuges domestically, without relying on imports.
Jafarzadeh said the Iranian leaders also agreed at their secret meeting to adopt a generally "aggressive and confrontational approach" with the IAEA before "muscling their way to the finish line to get the bomb."
ap article
