MOBILE DEVICES
Free Headline Alerts     
Worldwide Web WorldTribune.com

  breaking... 


Wednesday, December 1, 2010     FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

Iranian abducted by pro-Al Qaida group reports on his work at Isfahan nuclear facility

LONDON — An abducted Iranian has detailed the nation's nuclear weapons program.

ShareThis

An employee of Iran's fuel enrichment plant at Isfahan has provided a statement that Teheran was operating a nuclear weapons program. Amir Hussein Shirani, abducted by the Al Qaida-aligned Jund Allah in October 2010, said he helped enrich uranium for the assembly of nuclear weapons.

In the statement, Shirani also named senior engineers at Isfahan, Middle East Newsline reported. It was not immediately clear whether Shirani's statement included accurate details of Isfahan.


Also In This Edition

"During my time at the facility, I understood that there is a workshop working on enriching uranium for the production of nuclear weapons," Shirani said.

[On Nov. 29, Teheran reported the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist and the injury of another during an insurgency bombing attack. State television said the wives of the two scientists were injured.]

The Shirani statement was aired on the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya satellite channel on Nov. 27. Iran has acknowledged that Shirani was a low-level technician in the nuclear program, but said he did not have access to classified information.

Shirani said he was brought in to Isfahan by a relative, Ahmed Sultani, the general manager of the nuclear facility. He said Iran's nuclear weapons program was fueled by rivalry with neighboring Pakistan.

"Pakistan has nuclear weapons and so we must also get such weapons," Shirani said. "It is inconceivable that we should be inferior to Pakistan."

"The workshop was convened on three separate occasions," Shirani said. "Each time it was held, 50 people worked continuously around the clock."

Shirani, believed held in Iran's southeastern Baluchistan region, said he worked in the Isfahan facility since 2007. He said he had attended secret meetings in which senior engineers expressed the need for nuclear weapons.

"Those who were part of the project expressed their determination to obtain nuclear weapons," Shirani said. "They explained that it must be done because the enemies of Iran — the United States and Israel — have nuclear weapons."



About Us     l    Privacy     l    Geostrategy-Direct.com     l    East-Asia-Intel.com
Copyright © 2010    East West Services, Inc.    All rights reserved.