Exile Group: Iran Stepping Up Nuke Program

An exiled Iranian opposition group has claimed that Tehran was speeding up a program to develop nuclear weapons.

"The Iran regime entered a new phase in its nuclear project," Mohammad Mohaddessin, of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, said Wednesday.

The NCRI is the political wing of the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, which advocates the overthrow of government in Tehran. The Mujahedeen has been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and the European Union as well as Iran.

Mohaddessin claimed that Tehran has established a command and research center near a Tehran university. And, he said, Iran is developing a nuclear warhead for use on medium-range missiles at a site on the southeast edge of Tehran. Mohaddessin also claimed that the regime obtained aid from North Korea.

It was not possible to independently verify the NCRI claims. Mohaddessin said his group got the information from "hundreds" of reports and sources from within the Iranian regime, whom he did not name. He said some of the sources are within the nuclear project itself.

An official of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the agency was aware of the allegations. Mohaddessin said he had provided information to the IAEA on Tuesday.

Iran has steadfastly denied it is working to obtain a nuclear bomb, arguing that its nuclear program is civilian.

A recent U.S. National Intelligence Estimate said Iran halted a nuclear weapons development program in 2003 because of international pressure. But the White House said Iran continues to hide information, remains in violation of two U.N. Security Council resolutions, tests ballistic missiles and is enriching uranium, which can be used to build an atomic bomb.

Four years ago, the group disclosed information about two hidden nuclear sites in Iran. But much of the information it has presented since to support claims of a secret weapons program has not been publicly verified.

The NCRI's claim came a week after diplomats said Iran's new generation of advanced centrifuges had begun processing small quantities of the gas that can be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

Diplomats told the Associated Press last Wednesday that the centrifuges were working with only minute amounts of the uranium gas used as the feed stock for Iran's uranium enrichment program. And one of them said Tehran had set up only 10 of the machines - far too few to produce enriched uranium in the quantities needed for an industrial scale energy or a weapons program.

Still, the information revealed previously unknown details of the state of Iran's experiments with its domestically developed IR-2 centrifuges, which can churn out enriched uranium at more than double the rate of the machines that now form the backbone of its nuclear project.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Tuesday last week that enrichment would not stop.

"I ask the people's view. Would you agree if I ... gave in, surrendered or compromised over the nuclear issue? Would you agree to give up one iota of your nuclear rights?" Ahmadinejad asked the crowd at a massive rally to mark the 29th anniversary of the Islamic revolution. The crowd chanted in response: "No!" and "Nuclear energy is our definite right."