Iranian nuclear program | Iran's secret nuclear activities

The latest confidential report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) , seen by Reuters, sends a clear message: Iran's clerical regime cannot be trusted with its nuclear program. This comprehensive report, requested by the IAEA's Board of Governors, details Iran's secret nuclear activities with undeclared material at three long-studied sites—Lavisan-Shian, Varamin, and Turquzabad—dating back to the early 2000s, confirming a decades-long pattern of deception .

The report specifically states that a uranium metal disc was used at Lavisan-Shian at least twice in 2003 as part of small-scale tests to produce blast-driven neutron sources, a process designed to trigger nuclear weapons explosions. Furthermore, nuclear material and highly contaminated equipment from this program were stored for years at Turquzabad in Kahrizak Province: a clear violation by the Iranian regime of the international agreement to refrain from the production of nuclear weapons.

According to a separate IAEA report, Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity—dangerously close to weapons-grade—has increased by about half to 408.6 kilograms. This amount, if further enriched, is sufficient for nine nuclear weapons. The IAEA therefore expresses "grave concern" and notes that Iran is the only non-nuclear-weapon state enriching uranium.

Although the Iranian Foreign Ministry dismissed the report as "politically motivated," experience over the past few years suggests that the government has only resorted to such allegations as an expansion of its rapidly advancing nuclear program. In early May, the opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), founded in 1981 by the regime's opponents, the People's Mojahedin Organization, unveiled an allegedly secret Iranian nuclear weapons facility disguised as a petrochemical factory at a press conference in Washington. The information, which, according to NCRI, was based on a network of informants in Iran, showed Tehran's advanced development of materials to multiply the explosive power of a nuclear bomb and potentially produce hydrogen bombs.

In its recently published annual report on global terrorist threats, the Austrian domestic intelligence agency, according to AFP, states that Iran's nuclear weapons development program has made significant progress. The report also casts doubt on the purely civilian nature of the nuclear program , which the Iranian Foreign Ministry immediately condemned as "false and unfounded information."

For decades, Iran never voluntarily disclosed any part of its nuclear program. In 2002, the world became aware of Tehran's secret efforts with the discovery of the facilities in Natanz and Arak. The mullah regime's nuclear ambitions are linked to its desire to maintain power. According to its own statements, Iran has invested more than eleven billion dollars in the nuclear facilities in Bushehr. Weakened by internal crises, poverty, and a rise in executions, the regime relies on proxy groups and regional destabilization. The two pillars of maintaining power— repression at home and warmongering abroad —are more important to the Iranian regime than ever before.

Around 300 members of German state parliaments and the Bundestag support the call of a so-called FreeIran initiative for a new Iran policy that prioritizes human rights and democratic values ​​over appeasement. Furthermore, the activation of the so-called snapback mechanism, i.e., the reinstatement of UN Security Council sanctions to dismantle the Iranian nuclear program before a nuclear bomb can be built , is crucial.