A surprise visit to two undeclared Iranian nuclear facilities by inspection from the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resulted in the discovery of uranium particles, according to the Reuters news agency. The location of the sites was not revealed.
The sites where the material was found are believed to have been inactive for nearly 20 years.
The material was found during snap IAEA inspections that were carried out at the sites in August and September 2020 after Iran stonewalled the IAEA, barring and barred access for seven months.
According to the UAEA, one of the sites may have been used for uranium processing before the enrichment phase; the other was used for experiments with explosives.
The IAEA refused to comment on the findings and Iran’s representative to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, also remained silent on the discovery. A senior Iranian official told Reuters, however, “We have nothing to hide. That is why we allowed the inspectors to visit those sites.”
Iran is required under the terms of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal to explain evidence of undeclared past activities or material to the IAEA, which it consistently has not done until it is confronted with evidence of its violations.
The UN agency is now preparing to “rebuke” Tehran. According to a report earlier this month by The Wall Street Journal, radioactive material was found in the samples taken by inspectors at the two sites – four diplomats subsequently told Reuters the material in those samples was uranium.
Five diplomats told the news agency that after the IAEA confronted Iran with the findings, Tehran gave unsatisfactory responses.
Iran Refusing to Answer IAEA Questions on Secret Nuclear Facility
It is expected the IAEA will rebuke Iran for having failed to explain the uranium particles found at the two undisclosed nuclear sites, as well as over its continued failure to explain material found previously at another site in Tehran, Turqazabad.
Prior to his speech to the 2017 UN General Assembly, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the results of a spectacular Mossad operation that ended with the capture of an entire cache of secret Iranian nuclear data files that were stored at a secret facility in Shirobad.
Israeli intelligence agents translated the files and provided the information to world powers in order to enlighten and warn them about the violations of the nuclear deal that Iran had been carrying out, along with the highly advanced nuclear technology that had already taken place prior to the JCPOA negotiations that Iran had lied about in the first place.
Surprise! IAEA Finds Uranium Traces in Tehran, Where Netanyahu Told Them to Look
Inspectors from the IAEA did indeed visit the secret Iranian nuclear site at Turquzabad revealed by Netanyahu, Reuters reported, taking environmental samples from the site at that time. Subsequent reports revealed that those samples showed traces of uranium – and that was as far back as 2018. So in some respects, this “new” report is a bit of “fake news” because it is being rehashed over and over and over again. Iran is lying, Iran is faking and more to the point, Iran is covering up its nuclear activities. And the world is closing its eyes.
On April 30, 2018, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged world leaders and IAEA nuclear inspectors at a televised briefing to force Iran to come clean on its undeclared nuclear sites, and on its nuclear technology efforts – including those that were ongoing, in violation of the current JCPOA nuclear deal.
Project Amad was a comprehensive program to design, build and test nuclear weapons, Netanyahu explained at that briefing. “Iran is secretly storing Project Amad material to use at a time of its choice to develop nuclear weapons. Here’s what Project Amad’s explicit goal was: creating nuclear weapons.”
Full Transcript of Netanyahu’s Iran’s Nuclear Expose (video)
Netanyahu went on to show reporters the mission statement for the project: “Design, produce and test five warheads, each with ten kiloton TNT yield for integration on a missile.
“You don’t need to read Farsi to read 10 kilotons here. TNT. This is the specific goal of Project Amad. That’s like five Hiroshima bombs to be put on ballistic missiles.”