Exiles warn Iran has more than 60 scientists working on clandestine nuclear weapons program

May 13, 2012 – IRAN – An exiled Iranian opposition group said yesterday that Iran has some 60 scientists and engineers involved in a concerted and expanding program to develop nuclear weapons under defense ministry auspices. However, diplomats say the National Council of Resistance of Iran has had a spotty record with allegations about Iran’s nuclear work since exposing a secret uranium enrichment plant at Natanz in 2002. A top U.S. nuclear expert said the NCRI report, like previous ones, should be treated with great skepticism. Its latest report, whose details could not be verified, appeared timed to encourage a tougher line at talks with Iran the U.N. nuclear watchdog will have in Vienna on Monday and Tuesday and six world powers will hold in Baghdad on May 23. But it clashed with the assessment of US and Israeli intelligence officials that Iran has not decided whether to “weaponize” its enrichment program. Tehran says it is refining uranium solely for peaceful energy. In the six-page report shown to Reuters, the NCRI cited sources in the Iranian government and military as saying some 60 scientists were pursuing bomb-relevant research in 11 agencies operating clandestinely under defense ministry control. “Information … shows that the clerical regime has expanded the organization responsible for nuclear weapons development,” the report said. “This finding reveals a complete and elaborate, and highly … secret research structure and a network for procurement of the required parts and equipment. “So far, the identities of 60 directors and experts working in various parts of the New Defense Research Organization and 11 institutions and companies affiliated with it have been detailed,” the report went on. It featured diagrams said to lay out the disguised command structure and named scientists and engineers involved. –Stabroek News  Reuters  

Iran derides Israel: Ahead of upcoming nuclear talks, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad downplayed the threat Israel poses to Iran, comparing it to an annoying bug. “Israel is nothing more than a mosquito which cannot see the broad horizon of the Iranian nation,” he said Saturday in northeastern Iran’s Khorassan province, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. Ahmadinejad said “regional states” were being duped into buying billions in arms from “arrogant and imperial powers,” driven in part by all the talk surrounding a potential war involving Iran and Israel, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Such military purchases, he said, are unnecessary because there is no war on the horizon between those two nations. The Iranian president alluded to “rulers” who sold “their petrol” for $60 billion worth in arms, though he did not mention by name either the purchasing or selling country. Saudi Arabia is in the midst of a 20-year, $60 billion arms deal with the United States, including nearly $30 billion for F-15 fighter jets announced late last year. Ahmadinejad has long questioned the existence of the Holocaust and, months after taking office in October 2005, he participated in a lengthy protest called “World Without Zionism” and has repeatedly derided Israel. “With the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism,” he said then, according to another IRNA report. On Saturday, while seemingly backing away from the potential for an armed conflict, Ahmadinejad hardly signaled that Iranians should or will embrace Israel. –CNN