Iran Runs Military Nuclear Office, Intel Report Alleges

An intelligence document being studied by diplomats in Israel and Western powers alleges that a secret Iranian office is charged with overseeing military elements of the nation’s nuclear program, Der Spiegel reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 25).

The United States and its allies have expressed concern that Iran could tap its uranium enrichment program to generate nuclear-weapon material. Tehran has insisted its atomic ambitions are strictly peaceful, and the government has repeatedly informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it has only one, nonmilitary organization involved in the country’s uranium enrichment work.

The dossier, though, describes an Iranian Defense Ministry entity responsible for coordinating secret nuclear weapons development efforts. Referred to as the Expanded High-Technology Applications Department, or FEDAT, the office is said to be run by 48-year-old Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a ranking member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and a professor at Imam Hossein University in Tehran.

Seemingly adapted from the earlier Center for Aviation Technology in Tehran, the department is believed to split nuclear weapons development work with Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency while competing with the agency in other respects. While the energy agency has generally concentrated on Iran’s uranium enrichment program, the Defense Ministry department is assessed to have focused on efforts to develop a nuclear-capable warhead that could fit onto the nation’s Shahab ballistic missiles, according to the report.

Such a weapon could be ready between 2012 and 2014, experts say.

Global Security Newswire