Stop Fundamentalism – A drawing of a nuclear explosion test chamber handed to Associated Press by an unknown official of a country concerned about Iran’s advancement in producing a nuclear bomb, proves Iran is testing with nuclear explosives. The test chamber is identified to be built and hidden at the much debated “Parchin” nuclear site which is located inside a military zone in Iran and is heavily guarded.
IAEA has been trying to visit the site for inspections for some time now and specifically since early this year in its negotiations with the Iranian regime. But the international nuclear watchdog has repeatedly been denied the chance to do so by Tehran. Recent satellite pictures of the site show massive activities which make western and countries in the region feel uneasy more than before.
The activities at Parchin worry nuclear experts that Iran may actually be speeding up its nuclear program dashing to build the bomb.
IAEA officials say that they have reports that say Iran has tested a nuclear trigger at the site. A nuclear trigger can only have military applications. It can be used to trigger a nuclear explosion in a warhead.
The sketch of the test chamber that was provided to Associated Press is said to come from an informant inside the Parchin plant.
Seeing the sketch, former senior IAEA official, Olli Heinonen told reporters that he believes that the drawing is accurate and shows a “pressure chamber” built inside the plant at Iran’s Parchin nuclear site.
Iranian authorities and IAEA officials met in Vienna yesterday, at the Iranian embassy, to discuss the international agency’s expectations from Tehran. It is said that the IAEA is insisting on having access to the Parchin site. The agency officials left Iran’s embassy after 5 hours of talks today without making a statement or talking to reporters. They later released a statement saying they will be meeting Iranian officials next Monday, May 21. IAEA expects Iran to provide it access to persons involved in its nuclear program and also documents and nuclear plants themselves.
Iran and P5+1 countries are meeting face-to-face in Baghdad next week to discuss further the Iranian nuclear issue. Both sides considered last month’s meeting in Istanbul to be productive while admitted no agreement was reached in substance.
Iran’s nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, threatened today that any miscalculated move on the side of the western powers could result in failure of negotiations.
On the other hand, a resolution (H.R. 568) is expected to pass on in the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday. The Bill will ask the Obama administration to base any agreement with Iran to be on “the full and sustained suspension of all uranium enrichment-related” activities. The Resolution will certainly add to already mounting international pressures on Iran for its suspicious nuclear program.
In a six page report released to news media last week, the Iranian opposition based in exile revealed details of nuclear weapons development structural and organizational hierarchy set up by the Iranian regime. The report included names, institutions and sometimes even phone numbers of scientists involved.
“Our report shows that there is an ongoing and systematic effort on behalf of Iran to build a bomb, unlike what many Western countries believe,” said a group spokesman, Shahin Gobadi to De Welt last Week.
The opposition group has revealed the enrichment facilities at Natanz and the heavy water reactor at Arak over the past ten years and has repeatedly provided important clues and insights to the Iranian regime’s clandestine nuclear program.
