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Secrets of Iran's Nuclear Program and a Map of Its Secret Factories

by Safa Ha'iri
Paris AL-WATAN AL-'ARABI
20 Jan 95 pp 18-19

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[FBIS Translated Text] Will 1995 be the year during which Iran's nuclear program will be destroyed? The question is being asked today at the highest levels, particularly in Washington and Tel Aviv after information affirming that Iran will be in a position to own a nuclear bomb in five years was uncovered. It is worth noting that raising the question of an Iranian nuclear bomb is coinciding with American pressures on Pakistan to induce it to suspend its nuclear program. Washington is trying to get Pakistan to suspend its nuclear program as it insists on ignoring Israel's more than 200 nuclear bombs. Notwithstanding the political implications of the campaign against Iran, Iran's nuclear threat seems to be a very serious one indeed. In this report AL-WATAN AL-'ARABI reveals the truth about Iran's nuclear strategy as well as details of that strategy. This report reveals the truth about secret nuclear installations, factories for weapons of mass destruction, and the U.S. role in building Iran's nuclear program.

A statement made by General Uzi Dayan, Israel's chief of the Planning Branch in the Israeli army, was the first spark to ignite this issue. It was Gen. Dayan who raised for the first time the possibility of a military strike by Israel against Iran's nuclear installations "if no other power is able to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons." In a lecture he delivered in Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center for Strategic Studies and the Middle East, Gen. Dayan went so far as to say that the significant progress that was achieved by Iran in manufacturing nuclear weapons could induce Israel, as of now and a year from now, into making decisions to confront Iran's nuclear threat.

According to the information of this Israeli military official, "The state of universal chaos is such that countries like Iran can acquire the technology and the basic materials for manufacturing nuclear weapons more quickly and more efficiently." This information was confirmed and embraced by another group of Israeli and American military experts, including Yitzhaq Rabin, Israel's prime minister and defense minister; Gen. Danny Rothschild; and William Perry, the U. S. secretary of defense.

Accordingly, Gen. Dayan suggested that Israel remain cautious and watch this situation. At the same time it should prepare the measures that would be appropriate to confront the Iranian threat.

It is known that Israel launched an air raid on the French-built, Tamuz [July] nuclear reactor in Iraq in June 1981, almost one year after the onset of the Iran-Iraq War. That may be why Israel's recent threat caused concern in Iranian circles. It may be why many observers considered that threat a serious one.

It is a fact that Iran's ambitions for acquiring nuclear weapons have been well-known. Iranians themselves allude to them. Israeli observers remember statements such as the well-known one that was made by Ayatollah [as published] Mohajerani, one of President Hashemi Rafsanjani's advisors. Mohajerani affirmed that "as long as the Zionist regime is a nuclear power, every Islamic country, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran, must be capable of developing a nuclear weapon."

Israel and the Western countries have been following with great interest for years the development of Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and the growth in the size of its military arsenal. Israel did and continues to play a role in the intense pressure that is being applied to the West, particularly Washington and Bonn, to persuade these countries to reduce their commercial cooperation with Tehran. Germany became the focus of that pressure to make it intensify its oversight of operations to export dual-use (civil and military) technology to Iran.

The recent crisis is a product of the fact that Israeli and U.S. experts and officials suddenly resorted to reconsidering their previous estimates and information about Iran's nuclear capabilities. They have been affirming that Iran is now "very close" to producing its first nuclear bomb. They say that Iran will be able to produce that first bomb in "less than five years" when their previous estimates indicated that Iran would do so in about 10 years.

An American expert who is familiar with Iran's nuclear program says, "If Iran continues its present course, it will not be too long before it will acquire what it needs to manufacture the first nuclear bomb. Iran will be able to manufacture that bomb in a few years, not more than five years in any case." Western intelligence sources affirm that Tehran has been doing more than rebuild its military capabilities since the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1989. Iran has been rebuilding its military capabilities by acquiring advanced weapons, mostly from the former Soviet Union. The acquisition of those weapons was part of a $10 billion military agreement that was signed by Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Mikhail Gorbachev. The agreement involves almost all the weapons that the Soviet Union then owned and Russia now has in its factories: MiG 29s, T-72 heavy tanks, Kilo attack submarines, heavy artillery, helicopters, SAM and SCUD missiles, and advanced radar systems.

Tehran, Beijing, Pyongyang

What is most worrisome for the international community and the countries in the region, however, is the cooperation in the areas of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles between Tehran, on the one hand, and Beijing and Pyongyang, on the other.

As a matter of fact, this cooperation was such that China, after denying it for months, was compelled to admit that it had sold to the mullah's regime two advanced systems, thereby allowing Iran to produce enriched uranium. The Chinese were careful to affirm, however, that the sale was part of "a peaceful and scientific" use of this technology.

China also sold three kinds of silkworm missiles to Iran: surface to sea, air to sea, and air to surface. [as published] Two years ago a military plant in Kerman Province in southeast Iran started assembling Cruise missiles and M-11 missiles with a range of 300 km. The plant also started assembling F-7 training airplanes, which are clones of the Soviet MiG-19 airplanes, as well as CSS-2 missiles with a range of up to 1,000 km. It is those missiles that are worrying the Israelis because they can reach them.

Earlier, an Israeli journalist who had visited Tehran indicated that during his visit to Tehran--but he provided no details about that visit--he had met with a team of Chinese nuclear scientists who were on a business trip visiting nuclear installations in Isfahan in central Iran. Reza Amrollah, the director of Iran's Nuclear Energy Organization, affirmed that Tehran will receive from Beijing two Kishan nuclear reactors, each with a capacity of 300 megawatts.

It seems that nuclear cooperation between Iran and North Korea is more advanced than it is with China. The two capitals have joint projects for developing long-range Nodong and Rodong missiles. It seems that North Korea's communist and atheist regime did provide the anti-communist Islamic Republic with graphite nuclear reactors that utilize a relatively old technology that is not advanced. And yet, that technology, which is easily manufactured and installed, utilizes only natural, not enriched uranium, which Iran has difficulty utilizing. In addition, Iran did purchase from North Korea SCUD-B and SCUD-C ballistic missiles that have a range of 300 and 500 km.

Communications between Tehran and Pyongyang have recently undergone a noticeable change. There has been an increase in the number of meetings and processes that usually take place under the cover of exchanging parliamentary delegations, which usually include high-level military figures.

A secret and very detailed report by German intelligence had revealed that Iran had managed to manufacture SCUD-B missiles with a range of 300 km. The report also revealed that Iran had succeeded in setting up a technology that utilizes solid fuel to manufacture missiles.

That report, which was circulated a few months ago on a very limited basis, indicated that the project for producing quantities of Cruise missiles, which Iran had acquired from Beijing, had gone into "a very advanced" stage.

The report confirmed the doubts and fears expressed by experts and other intelligence agencies. It confirmed that Iran "had acquired Nodong-1 missiles with a range of over 1,000 km and that it was getting ready to produce these missiles locally with the assistance of Korean experts."

Secret Factories

While security agencies were closely watching the development of Iran's nuclear program, the mullahs found themselves compelled to deny the existence of any military, nuclear projects. However, Iran's insistence on equipping the Bushehr power plant on the Gulf with nuclear reactors increased worries, fears, and suspicions in the major capitals.

It is known that Iran is a member of the International Energy Organization and that it had signed the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Iran's nuclear installations have been subject to periodic inspection by experts of the international organization. By comparison, Israel, which owns between 100 and 200 nuclear bombs and warheads, according to the sources, still refuses to sign the international agreement. Israel insists on preventing the Energy Organization's experts from visiting its numerous nuclear installations, which have become known to everyone.

But the peaceful statements that are being repeated by the mullahs are neither reassuring nor persuading anyone in the world. Recently, with Iranian experts opposed to the regime affirming that military nuclear installations are scattered everywhere in Iran in secret locations that are subject to strict military control, international suspicions have been reinforced. When AL-WATAN AL-'ARABI asked an official in the International Energy Organization in Vienna if international experts were able to confirm that they were visiting all nuclear installations in Iran, that source replied that the experts can visit only "those sites that the Iranians want us to visit." Informed Iranian sources revealed to AL-WATAN AL-'ARABI that the larger part of Iran's military nuclear centers and factories, where missiles and other advanced offensive weapons are manufactured, are scattered in secret locations in areas of Kerman in the southeast, Fars in the south, Semnan in the northeast, Khorrmabad in the center of the country, and also in Tehran.

The Bushehr Reactor

The well-known Bushehr reactor had been equipped for the basic purpose of a large program involving about 20 plants that would use nuclear energy to generate electricity. Before the Islamic Revolution, 75 percent of the Bushehr Center, each of whose reactors has a capacity of 1,300 megawatts, had been completed by experts from Siemens, the German firm. By comparison, the French firm, Framatome, had started construction of two other units on the Karun River near the Iraqi border. It was the Shah's hope that this huge Iranian program would guarantee for Iran the infrastructure that was essential for turning the country into a nuclear power equal to Israel. But Ayatollah Khomeyni soon declared this project "anti-Islamic," and the government of Mehdi Bazargan soon abandoned it. In 1981 the Iraqi air force destroyed what was left of its installations.

Then, while the Iran-Iraq war was in full swing, the mullahs changed their minds, and they tried to rebuild the Bushehr reactor according to plans that had been prepared by the Shah. They asked the Germans to resume work on the reactor, but the Kraft-Werke Union [KWU], which is a principal Siemens subsidiary, came under American pressure and was induced to propose a new design for the reactor whose technology replaces nuclear technology with natural gas operated turbines. This was done based on the fact that natural gas is a substance that Iran has an abundant supply of and natural gas reserves in Iran are the second largest after those in Russia.

After years of negotiations and efforts during which Iran had been turned down by Japan, South Korea, France, Switzerland, and all the other countries with extensive experience in building nuclear plants to whom it had turned for assistance, Moscow agreed to build the Bushehr plant for Iran after getting the green light to do so from Washington.

Last 8 January an agreement was signed in Tehran between Iranian authorities and Victor Mikhaylov, Russia's minister of atomic energy. The agreement, which is worth more than $1 billion, involves the construction of two reactors, each with a capacity of 1,300 megawatts.

Several Western countries expressed their dismay with this Russian-Iranian deal, particularly since it was concluded with Washington's consent. One Western diplomat commented on the deal by saying, "It is an example of the Clinton administration's policy. Washington prevents its allies from gaining a toehold, but it allows its enemies to gain a foothold." It is known that Washington, which had applied pressure to Western countries, particularly to Germany to prevent it from rebuilding the Bushehr plant, allowed Moscow to build the plant hoping that the deal would help Boris Yeltsin by ensuring for him the financial revenues that would come with the deal.

Today, it is the same Clinton administration that is leading the campaign against Iran's nuclear threat. It is the same Clinton administration that is applying pressure to Pakistan to compel it "to stop" its nuclear program. In the meantime Washington is refusing to talk any time now or in the future about Israel's nuclear bombs.

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