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London Paper Claims ‘West’ Believes Iran Has Secret Nuclear Weapons Program

Western intelligence agencies believe Iran is hiding the true scope of its nuclear program, according to “sources in western intelligence agencies” quoted by the London Daily Telegraph on March 22.  Following the Telegraph, the Sun newspaper reported that Iran was "feared to be secretly building a nuclear bomb. "

The Telegraph’s sources informed the newspaper that satellite imagery had shown equipment and resources were hidden from United Nations nuclear inspectors in 75 containers that are frequently moved around the country "to compounds run by Atomic Energy Agency of Iran and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC)." The Telegraph story comes as the United States administration of President Joe Biden seeks to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

"The new revelations that Iran is trying to conceal vital elements of its nuclear program from the outside world shows that Tehran has no intention of complying with its international obligations under the terms of the nuclear deal, " a "senior official from a Western intelligence agency" told the Telegraph. The official reportedly claimed this showed that Iran was "committed to acquiring nuclear weapons."

Such allegations are not new. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long insisted Iran seeks nuclear weapons to use against the Jewish state: in 1992, before he became prime minister, Netanyahu told the Israeli parliament Tehran was three to five years away from producing a nuclear bomb.

Since President Joe Biden took office, Netanyahu, who faces an election on Tuesday, has replaced his opposition to the JCPOA with an insistence that a new deal be sought without "sunset clauses" and that US sanctions be maintained until Iran agrees to wider concessions including curbing its missile defense and ending all support to Palestinian groups.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has followed his predecessor Ruhollah Khomeini in ruling out weapons of mass destruction, and a fatwa, or religious ruling issued by Khamenei – against the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons −was revealed publicly in a statement from Iran to the International Atomic Agency (IAEA) in Vienna in August 2005.

But Iran's Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi on February 8 suggested that Iran might develop nuclear weapons if "backed into a corner. Alavi said it "won’t be Iran's fault anymore if they push it in that direction."

Alavi’s remarks followed Iranian diplomat and Brigadier-General Amir Mousavi pointing out in a January 30 interview with al-Mayadeen television that no fatwa was permanent in Jafari Shia jurisprudence. "A fatwa is issued in accordance with developing circumstances," he said. "Therefore, I believe that if the Americans and Zionists act in a dangerous manner, the fatwa might be changed." 

Iran’ nuclear program began with American assistance before the 1979 Revolution. The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency later reported that Iran carried out research into aspects of weapons-development before 2003. After beginning uranium enrichment under IAEA supervision, Iran suspended it in 2003, restarted in 2005 and reached 20 percent enrichment by 2009. The program was curtailed under the 2015 agreement, but Iran has expanded it since the US left the JCPOA in 2018, recently once again enriching to 20 percent, far above the 3.67 percent allowed under the 2015 deal.

A British-Iranian journalist, political analyst and former correspondent of The National and journalist at Iran International
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