Iran is deliberately concealing key components of its nuclear program from UN inspectors that can be used for producing nuclear weapons, Western intelligence officials told the Telegraph on Monday.
The Telegraph’s sources said satellite imagery had shown equipment and resources were hidden from UN nuclear inspectors in 75 containers that are frequently moved around the country “to compounds run by Atomic Energy Agency of Iran and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).”
A senior official from a Western intelligence agency also told the newspaper that new revelations show that Tehran has no intention of complying with its international obligations under the terms of the nuclear deal and that Iran was “committed to acquiring nuclear weapons.”
In the past few weeks, Iran tried to reject reports accusing it of seeking to build nuclear weapons.
However, Iran's Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said last month Iran might develop nuclear weapons if “backed into a corner,” adding that it “won’t be Iran's fault anymore if they push it in that direction.”
European media outlets backing a deal with Iran downplayed the importance of such threats, saying that the minister’s statements aim only to increase the current tension between Tehran and Washington concerning the nuclear deal.
Meanwhile, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi ruled out an easy return to the deal with Iran’s growing violations of its commitments.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Grossi said Iran has produced the minimum amount of material necessary to produce a nuclear weapon, but it needs more material to build the bomb.
In a related development, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he is not opposed to including Saudi Arabia in a new nuclear deal.
In an interview with Russia’s RT, he said the accord signed in Vienna in 2015, has yielded no positive results.
