Wall Street Journal: Iran Previously Had a Secret Nuclear Weapons Program

An American newspaper reported that the Obama administration concluded that the uranium particles discovered at the Parchin military base indicate Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program in the past. The Wall Street Journal published this report in its Sunday, June 30 issue, citing current and former U.S. officials. The newspaper states that the new findings contradict Tehran's repeated denials of any efforts to develop nuclear weapons. According to the report, the uranium particles found at the Parchin site, southeast of Tehran, were part of investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) related to the historic agreement between Iran and six world powers on July 14 last year. Iran has claimed that conventional weapons were tested at Parchin. The discovered uranium samples at this base are the first physical evidence—beyond satellite images and documents released by defectors—accusing Iran of pursuing a nuclear bomb program. The Wall Street Journal noted that the U.S. government did not react when the IAEA published its report on Iran's uranium in December; this discovery was only briefly mentioned in a 16-page report. However, current and former U.S. officials in recent interviews regarding the finding of these uranium particles stated that the current hypothesis is that these activities were aimed at producing nuclear weapons, which is suspected to have been pursued by Iran a decade ago. A senior U.S. official stated: 'The presence of two samples of uranium particles confirms the involvement of Parchin in the past weapons program, but these samples do not prove anything definitively.' U.S. officials also stated that this discovery does not change the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies, which previously announced that Tehran had halted its efforts in this area in 2003. The Wall Street Journal's report faced denial from the spokesperson of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, who described it as 'beating water in a mortar' by U.S. officials and media. Behrouz Kamalvandi stated to ISNA on Tuesday: 'The issue of possible military dimensions (PMD) was closed forever after the Director General of the IAEA visited and after the sampling conducted, followed by the report presented to the Board of Governors.' According to this Iranian official, 'The publication of such materials with political motives by some American and international media does not change the fact that the PMD file has been closed.' These statements come as Yukiya Amano, the IAEA Director General, mentioned in an interview with the Washington Post on June 5 about Iran's past activities, particularly the tests conducted at Parchin, stating: 'Tehran's denials regarding past tests are invalid from the agency's perspective, but what is now very important is that such actions and tests are no longer being conducted at Parchin.' He emphasized: 'I went there (Parchin). It was almost empty. I can certainly say that tests like the (explosive) chamber are no longer conducted there.' The agency's report in December 2015 was published three months after Republican efforts in the U.S. Congress to reject the agreement between Iran and six world powers were blocked. Under the Vienna agreement, world powers agreed to lift sanctions against Tehran in exchange for halting many of Iran's nuclear activities. According to the Wall Street Journal, agency officials stated in their interviews that during the agency's investigations from July to December last year, Iran did not allow inspectors access to its nuclear scientists, who were believed to have witnessed the nuclear weapons development program. Iran also labeled many of the documents provided by the agency as fake. The report indicates that the samples found at Parchin were so small that the agency cannot definitively conclude that nuclear materials were present at this site. Iran also did not allow soil sampling from the site. However, the agency emphasized in its December report that Iran's explanation of what happened at Parchin—specifically, the storage of chemicals used in the development of conventional weapons—does not match the results of tests or satellite images. Robert Einhorn, one of the senior U.S. negotiators during nuclear talks with Iran, who is now a nuclear expert at the Brookings Institution, told the Wall Street Journal: 'The U.S. government's assumption is that these particles are related to nuclear weapons-related tests. From a technical perspective, the evidence in this regard is inconclusive. However, the government believes it has other information that confirms nuclear weapons-related activity (at Parchin).'