Jerusalem – Secret Mossad Files Show Underground Iran Nuke Facility Older Than Admitted

Jerusalem – 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.

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.

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.