(Israel Defense) Rafael Ofek - Iran has specialized in misleading the world and concealing its military nuclear program under the umbrella of "peaceful needs." It is difficult to understand why the nuclear discussions with Iran continue as though nothing has happened, even when it has turned out time and again that Iran is misleading the world. Dr. Fereydoon Abbasi, president of the Iranian organization for nuclear energy, admitted in a September 2012 interview to Al Hayat that Iran has presented falsified facts to protect its nuclear program and conceal its technical progress in several fields. According to Abbasi, "Many times, we delivered false information (to IAEA inspectors) in order to protect our nuclear facilities and our accomplishments." Iran did not inform the IAEA in advance of the establishment of a facility for enriching uranium in Natanz as well as a heavy water reactor in Khondab, near Arak. Their existence was revealed in August 2002 by an Iranian opposition organization. While Tehran found civilian justifications for the construction of the nuclear facilities, it faced difficulties in explaining the information presented to it by the IAEA that clearly points to efforts in developing a nuclear explosive device. However, Iran came up with several ways of dealing with the incriminating facts. One way was by destroying evidence, including the total destruction of part of the Lavizan-Shian suburb in Tehran, including disposing of vast quantities of soil from the area, in order to conceal the existence of a facility that operated there earlier that served the military nuclear program. The Iranian claim that the uranium it is enriching to a level of 20% is intended to produce fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor is clearly false. Its purpose is to serve as a "cover story" for the program to continue enriching uranium to a level of 90% - weapons-grade quality for a nuclear weapon. As of November 2012, Iran had accumulated enough 20%-enriched uranium to fuel the reactor in Tehran for the next 25 years. Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Rafael Ofek, an expert on nuclear physics and technology, served in the Israeli intelligence community as a senior analyst and researcher.
2013-04-30 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive