The Austrian intelligence agency said in a report that Iran is continuing with its active nuclear weapons program, which it says can be used to launch missiles over long distances.
Also, the IRGC, Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, is accused of planting spies in European companies and factories to learn expertise and transfer new technologies, the report showed according to Fox news.
It said the intelligence gathering of Austrian officials contradicts the assessment of the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate Intelligence Committee in March that the American intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.”
Austria’s version of the FBI - the Directorate State Protection and Intelligence Service - wrote Monday in the intelligence report, “In order to assert and enforce its regional political power ambitions, Iran is striving for comprehensive rearmament, with nuclear weapons to make the regime immune to attack and to expand and consolidate its dominance in the Middle East and beyond.”
In the 211-page report that covers pressing threats to Austria’s democracy, the agency said that the “Iranian nuclear weapons development program is well advanced, and Iran possesses a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads over long distances.”
Shell Companies
The report said that Iran’s intelligence seeks to exploit its relations with research institutes and academic centers in war zones to use their expertise for its own military-industrial development.
According to the intelligence document obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital, Iranian regime intelligence actively targets Western technologies and dual-use goods, often using front companies and shell corporations tied to the Revolutionary Guards.
These networks enable Iran to acquire components for WMDs and high-tech military equipment.
“Western military technology from war zones - such as captured Israeli or US drones - is disassembled, studied, and replicated,” the report said.
“Iranian intelligence services are familiar with developing and implementing circumvention strategies for the procurement of military equipment, proliferation-sensitive technologies, and materials for weapons of mass destruction,” the Austrian intelligence agency added.
In October 2022, the Ukrainian military showcased a captured modern Iranian “Mohajer-6” attack drone that was recovered from the Black Sea. It said the reconnaissance drone is equipped with an aircraft engine manufactured by the Austrian company Rotax, signaling Tehran’s non-compliance with the EU's arms-related sanctions.
In October 2020, after the US imposed new sanctions on the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, the National Iranian Oil Company and the National Iranian Tanker Company “for their financial support to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps – Quds Force,” Rotax said it stopped selling aircraft engines to Iran.
Austria's counter-terrorism authority reported a rise in job applications from Iranians to Austrian companies, particularly those specialized in the metal and electrical engineering industries, raising security concerns about Iran’s attempt to seek sensitive knowledge to support its weapons programs.
The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF), also reported an increase in espionage activities, particularly targeting economic and research institutions in Austria by foreign actors seeking to obtain economic and scientific information.
Earlier, European countries imposed strict measures on Iranian students applying to technical universities and sectors related to nuclear technology.
Noting Iran’s interference in regional conflicts, the Austrian intelligence agency said that since the 2010s, the Iranian regime’s arms shipments have fueled regional conflicts, especially in Syria and Palestine.
Disguised Intelligence Officers
The Austrian intelligence findings could be an unwanted wrench in President Trump’s negotiation process to resolve the atomic crisis with Iran’s rulers because the data outlined in the report suggests the regime will not abandon its drive to secure a nuclear weapon, Fox News said.
The report comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose headquarters are in the Austrian capital, will in the coming days publish its own review of Iran’s nuclear activities.
The Fox news report said, “Vienna is home to one of the largest embassies of Iran in Europe, which disguises intelligence officers with diplomatic.”
The Austrian intelligence report noted that, “Iranian intelligence services are familiar with developing and implementing circumvention strategies for the procurement of military equipment, proliferation-sensitive technologies, and materials for weapons of mass destruction.”
In 2021, a Belgian court convicted Asadollah Asadi, a former Iranian diplomat based in Vienna, for planning to blow up a 2018 opposition meeting of tens of thousands of Iranian dissidents held outside Paris. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, attended the event in France.
When asked about the differences in conclusions between the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Austrian intelligence report, David Albright, a physicist and founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, DC, told Fox News Digital, “The ODNI report is stuck in the past, a remnant of the fallacious unclassified 2007 NIE [National Intelligence Estimate].”
“The Austrian report in general is similar to German and British assessments. Both governments, by the way, made clear to (the) US IC [intelligence community] in 2007 that they thought the US assessment was wrong that the Iranian nuclear weapons program ended in 2003.”
"The German assessment is from BND [Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service] station chief in DC at that time. The British info is from a senior British non-proliferation official I was having dinner with the day the 2007 NIE was made public. The German said the US was misinterpreting data they all possessed.”
Iran’s Response
Iran on Friday called for an “official explanation” from the Austrian government following a recent report by the country’s intelligence agency concerning Iran’s nuclear program.
In a statement, Esmail Baghaei, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, decried the Austrian intelligence agency's report about Iran's “active nuclear weapons program” as “false and baseless,” according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
Referring to Iran's membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the obvious fact that Iran's nuclear program is subject to the strictest inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Foreign Ministry spokesman considered Austria's move as undermining the credibility of the IAEA.
“Unlike Austria and some other European countries that are deceitfully silent about the arming of Israel with all kinds of weapons of mass destruction, Iran is strongly opposed to nuclear weapons and other types of mass destruction weapons,” he said.
Also, Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister and lead nuclear negotiator, responded to the report on Thursday, saying “Media is speculating about an imminent Iran-US deal. Not sure if we are there yet.”
On X, he wrote, “Iran is sincere about a diplomatic solution that will serve the interests of all sides. But getting there requires an agreement that will fully terminate all sanctions and uphold Iran's nuclear rights -- including enrichment.”
