Secret Mossad files show underground Iran nuke facility older than admitted

This discovery could be significant because it shows that Iran is still lying to the international community about a nuclear facility that has no reasonable use other than military.

MARCH 14, 2019 21:02

A SATELLITE view of Iran's Fordow nuclear plant. (photo credit: GOOGLE) — A SATELLITE view of Iran's Fordow nuclear plant.

(photo credit: GOOGLE)

New evidence disclosed in Iran’s secret nuclear files taken by the Mossad show that its underground Fordow nuclear facility is older than it has admitted, according to a think-tank report.

This discovery could be significant, says the Institute for Science and International Security, because it shows that Iran is still lying to the international community about a nuclear facility that has no reasonable use other than military.

The report says that photographs and documents it reviewed from the materials taken from Iran in January 2018 by the Mossad date the facility to as much as five years earlier than the Islamic Republic has led the world to believe.

Iran's nuclear archive shows construction started on Fordow, aka Al Ghadir, as early as 2002, contradicting claims it started in 2007. Al Ghadir was being built to produce weapon-grade uranium as part of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, codenamed Amad Superorganizational Plan. https://t.co/EEjdzvO9E6
— Inst for Science (@TheGoodISIS) March 13, 2019

In 2009, the international community confronted Tehran with the fact that it had uncovered Fordow, which Iran had worked hard to conceal.

The catching of Iran red-handed building a secret underground nuclear facility at the time was the beginning of what rallied Russia, China and the UN Security Council to pressure the Islamic Republic with sanctions.

Those sanctions eventually led Tehran to sign the 2015 nuclear deal.

As part of the deal, Iran was obligated to disclose all facets of its nuclear program that it had not previously disclosed or regarding which it had provided false information.

Iran indicated that the facility dated back to 2007.

However, its secret nuclear files reviewed by the think-tank show that it may date back to as early as 2002, with extremely strong evidence that it dated back to at least 2004.

Stay updated with the latest news!

Subscribe to The Jerusalem Post Newsletter

Subscribe Now

The report said that, “Iran’s determination to keep open this deeply buried enrichment site extended into the negotiations over the JCPOA [nuclear deal] and even today, despite the plant having no credible civilian nuclear justification.”

It continued saying, “The Nuclear Archive raises again the deception of Iran about its past nuclear weapons activities and raises profound questions about the true purpose of this facility” in the present and when the deal’s nuclear restrictions expire in the future.

The think-tank slammed the international community for permitting Iran to continue to operate Fordow, saying that “speaks volumes of its failure to first determine and then ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is truly peaceful.”

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post in January, the think-tank’s director, David Albright, said that there were 3,000 IR-1 centrifuges for enriching uranium at Fordow which could potentially be used to produce one to two nuclear bombs per year.

Like many issues with Iran, it is these ambiguities which also leave open questions about whether the Islamic Republic could develop more nuclear weapons than expected and at a faster speed.