U.S. has photos of secret Iran nuclear
sites
From David Ensor
CNN
Thursday, December 12, 2002 Posted: 6:38 PM EST (2338 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United
States has evidence that Iran has
secretly been constructing large
nuclear faci lities -- sites that could
possibly be used to make nuclear
weapons, senior U.S. officials tell
CNN.
Commercial satellite photographs taken
in September show a nuclear facility near
the town of Natanz and another one near
Arak, the officials said. (view map)
"It's disturbing news. We don't need
another nuclear power -- not with Iran
sponsoring terrorism that it has in the
past," said Sen. Richard Shelby,
R-Alabama, the vice chairman of the
Senate Intelligence Committee.
"The fact that they are seemingly pursuing
an avenue to build nuclear weapons
should be disturbing to everybody," he
said.
Iranian dissidents have long contended
that Iran has been working on nuclear
capabilities. But the new satellite
photographs and the conclusions drawn
by them by nuclear experts are the first
time there has been any evidence to
support such claims.
Nuclear expert David Albright said the size
and secrecy of the program to date
suggest that Iran may be working toward
building nuclear weapons.
"Iran looks like it's building very large
nuclear facilities that could be part of an
effort to make the material you need to
make nuclear weapons," he said.
Albright is head of the Institute for Science
and International Security (ISIS), which identified the photographs. ISIS is a
non-profit, non-partisan institution that focuses on stopping the spread of nuclear
weapons.
The satellite picture of the facility near Arak concerns nuclear experts.
"This is a heavy water plant. It's very similar to other heavy water plants we've seen in
areas such as Pakistan, and the important facilities here is this kind of Z-shaped
structure," said Corey Hinderstein, also of ISIS.
The large facility at Natanz appears to U.S. intelligence officials to be a uranium
enrichment plant and civilian experts agree with that assessment.
"We believe this is a uranium enrichment facility and could be a centrifuge facility,"
said Hinderstein.
Iran has a publicly declared nuclear
program at Bushehr that is designed only
to produce peaceful nuclear power for
electricity, according to the country's U.N.
ambassador.
"I can categorically tell you that Iran does
not have a nuclear weapons program,"
said Javad Zarif. "Any facility we have ... if it
is dealing with nuclear technology, it is
within the purview of our peaceful nuclear
program."
A spokesman at the International Atomic
Energy Agency in Vienna confirms the agency is seeking access to the two sites and
has so far been put off by Iran.
Iranian officials say a trip by senior IAEA officials to Iran is expected in February. IAEA
officials say on that trip they want to visit Arak and Natanz.
Iran has signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The IAEA is
the international agency that verifies compliance with the treaty for its member
states.
IAEA officials also point out that to date nothing that Iran is known to have done has
violated international law.
Iranian officials say the United States cannot be trusted on the details of its nuclear
program since Washington does not want Iran to have any program -- not even for
civilian energy.
The revelation of Iran's two plants comes one day after the Bush administration
released its strategy to combat weapons of mass destruction. The report warned
that any nation using such weapons against the United States or its allies would
face massive retaliation, perhaps with nuclear weapons.
Bush labeled Iran an "axis of evil," along with Iraq and North Korea, in his State of the
Union address earlier this year.
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