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Report: Iranian opposition group says Tehran did not halt nuke program
By Reuters
Tags: Israel, Iran, NCRI 

Iran did shut down its nuclear weapons program in 2003 but restarted it a year later, dispersing the equipment to thwart international inspectors, an overseas Iranian opposition group told the Wall Street Journal.

The group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), exposed the country's nuclear-fuel program in 2002 and now believes a recent U.S. analysis is giving the wrong impression that Iran's nuclear program is not an urgent threat, the newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate published last week said Iran's weapons program was frozen in 2003, contradicting an earlier report that the Islamic Republic was determined to build a nuclear bomb.
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert disagreed, saying Israel believes Iran will have the resources to create a nuclear weapon by 2010. But the estimate dampened any enthusiasm among Russia and China for more UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes.

The NCRI, listed by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization, has had a mixed record of accuracy with its nuclear claims bout Iran, the Journal said.

The NCRI does agree that Iran's Supreme National Security Council decided to shut down its most important nuclear weapons research center in eastern Tehran, called Lavisan-Shian, in August 2003, the Journal said.

But the group, which claims it has sources inside Iran, said the facility had entered 11 fields of research, including projects to develop a nuclear trigger and shape weapons-grade uranium into a warhead, the paper said.

"They scattered the weaponization program to other locations and restarted in 2004," Mohammad Mohaddessin, the NCRI's foreign affairs chief, told the Journal.

"Their strategy was that if the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) found any one piece of this research program, it would be possible to justify it as civilian. But so long as it was all together, they wouldn't be able to."

By the time international inspectors were allowed to visit the Lavisan site, the buildings Iran claimed were devoted to nuclear research had been torn down and the ground bulldozed, the paper said.

The NCRI said the equipment was moved to another military compound known as the Center for Readiness and Advanced Technology, to Malek-Ashtar University Isfahan and to a defense ministry hospital in Tehran.

The NCRI says it was added to the EU terrorist list under pressure from Tehran at a time when Western countries were trying to improve relations with Iran.

Officials from the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China will hold talks on Tuesday on finalizing the text of a third UN sanctions resolution against Iran, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday.

"Most states have found that we have the right strategy and the key is still to get Iran to stop its enrichment and reprocessing so that we can begin negotiations to meet the legitimate need for civilian nuclear power," Rice said.



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      1.   BRAVE people.Iranian hit men silence their opposition 11:22  |  PETER SM 11/12/07
      2.   And the flow of predictable Zionist propaganda continues 11:29  |  Clickfool 11/12/07
      3.   MUJAHIDIN KHALQ THEN, NOW THIS 12:01  |  indrajaya 11/12/07
      4.   they have to say that ... 12:45  |  Leona 11/12/07
      5.   SHOCKED I`M SHOCKED I TELL YOU... 12:45  |  Daniel 11/12/07
      6.   Pfft ! 12:46  |  Bob 11/12/07
      7.   If they really knew ... 12:57  |  Doubtful 11/12/07
      8.   BOB"allied themselves with Saddam Hussein" So did the Pals 13:16  |  PETER SM 11/12/07
      9.   Info From Any "Opposition Group" Has to be Doubted First 13:26  |  Ovadiah ben Avraham 11/12/07
      10.   Where is the evidence? 13:42  |  Chris Linthwaite 11/12/07
      11.   One man`s Terrorist........ 13:44  |  Ojective Analyist 11/12/07
      12.   Clickfool`s a zionist agitator 14:03  |  David 11/12/07
      13.   "Curve ball" all over again 14:11  |  spyguy 11/12/07
      14.   Objective analysis of Kingston 14:15  |  Lynn 11/12/07
      15.   a report with no name? 14:23  |  mike 11/12/07
      16.   I`m sure they are as reliable as the groups that opposed Saddam 14:23  |  Apartheid 11/12/07
      17.   These opposition groups are the ahmed chalabis of Iran!In any 14:32  |  lakshmi 11/12/07
      18.   Iraqi exiles lied about WMD to get Iraq invaded 14:34  |  Michael 11/12/07
      19.   I respect only Harry Trumann 14:52  |  posttraumatic Jew 11/12/07
      20.   lakshmi looking forward to the caliphate 15:36  |  Lynn 11/12/07
      21.   # 15 mike 15:41  |  Lynn 11/12/07
      22.   Iran wants to regain the position of power and respect it has 16:21  |  Apartheid 11/12/07
      23.   Golly, still beating that tin war drum. 16:33  |  ballistic 11/12/07
      24.   #10 Linthwaite 16:58  |  * BEN JABO 11/12/07
      25.   What else are they going to say? 17:02  |  Silly Article 11/12/07
      26.   iran vs israel and america 17:10  |  otiwa ogede 11/12/07
      27.   Iran Marches on to Doomsday 17:23  |  David Samson 11/12/07
      28.   TO BEN JABO #24 17:25  |  Steve Beikirch 11/12/07
      29.   #28 Beikirch 17:50  |  * BEN JABO 11/12/07
      30.   #24-2 Linthwaite 17:53  |  * BEN JABO 11/12/07
      31.   judaized iranian will say whatever they are paid to 17:54  |  amelek 11/12/07
      32.   # chris linthwaite TWISTS facts into LIES 18:39  |  CK Tan 11/12/07
      33.   #20 lakshmi SEES the world through OPAQUE glasses 18:45  |  CK Tan 11/12/07
      34.   World owes the NCRI more than it is aware of. 19:25  |  Fortuna Benmayor 11/12/07
      35.   iran -the most loving peaceful nation on God`s green earth 19:27  |  don 11/12/07
      36.   Indoensia, England, Syria, Iran,Lebanon,etc 19:28  |  CHARRO 11/12/07
      37.   Of course, they want money!!! 19:41  |  Greg 11/12/07
      38.   Linthwaite -- You`ve forgotten 19:56  |  * BEN JABO 11/12/07
      39.   #22 - Let`s be precise 19:59  |  JES 11/12/07
      40.   This is a terrorist organization 20:10  |  Detective Spoke 11/12/07
      41.   33CK Tan,the Darfur genocide lasted how long? israel`s has lasted 20:10  |  lakshmi 11/12/07
      42.   Former bedfellows of Saddam, now Bush and Israel 20:22  |  AM 11/12/07
      43.   APARTHERID"Power&respect" by "DEATH to America"Holding US embassy 22:22  |  PETER SM 11/12/07
      44.   #41 lakshmi aka Kali 05:28  |  * BEN JABO 12/12/07
      45.   #41 lakshmi again PROVES that she has NOTHING between her ears 09:04  |  CK Tan 12/12/07
      46.   #41 lakshmi - It`s not how long, it`s how many 19:12  |  * BEN JABO 13/12/07
      47.   to PETER SM, US EMBASSY, Tehran 12:48  |  Armin-Iran 14/12/07
      48.   to CK Tan 12:55  |  Bored gal 14/12/07
      49.   #48 Bored Girl 03:49  |  * BEN JABO 15/12/07
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