National Council of Resistance of Iran - Iran opens nuke warhead center

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Opposition: Iran opens warhead center, has accelerated nuclear program

LONDON -- An Iranian opposition group said Teheran has launched a new stage of its nuclear project, which included the establishment of a facility to produce warheads. The National Council of Resistance of Iran asserted that Iran also completed a command and control center to direct any nuclear attack.

"The Iranian regime is undoubtedly developing the nuclear bomb," NCRI representative Mohammad Mohaddessin said. "None of the essential work has been halted. All three parts have been speeded up."

At a briefing on Feb. 20 in Paris, Mohaddessin, citing sources within the nuclear project, said Iran received assistance from North Korea for the development of the nuclear warhead. He said development and production were taking place at a facility code-named B1-Nori-8500 at Khojir, southeast of Teheran.

"The clerical regime [in Iran] has not ended its nuclear weapons program, rather it has expedited its activities and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has taken greater control of the program," Mohaddessin, chairman of NCRI's foreign affairs committee, said.

Khojir has been directed by Iranian missile specialist Mehdi Naghiyan Fesharaki, Mohaddessin said. Mohaddessin said Fesharaki was transferred to Khojir in 2006 in wake of an apparent breakthrough in warhead development.

"This means the regime is getting to the point of connecting nuclear weapons to missiles," Mohaddessin said.

The Iranian regime was also said to have completed a C2 center for the nuclear weapons production program at Mujdeh outside Teheran in April 2007. Mohaddessin said the program was dubbed Lavizan-2.

"We would like to urgently ask the IAEA to immediately send inspectors to the sites," Mohaddessin said. "Time is running out to stop the regime acquiring a nuclear bomb. If we do not act today, tomorrow might be too late."