Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — The Iranian opposition said Teheran was moving a nuclear weapons research and development center to a Defense Ministry complex.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, on the eve of nuclear talks in Geneva on Oct. 15, identified the facility as SPND and said it employs 100 researchers.

“There is a link between this transfer and the date of Geneva [talks] because the regime needed to avoid the risk of visits by inspectors,” Mehdi Abrichamtchi, who compiled the report for the opposition council, said.

In a news conference in Paris on Oct. 10, Abrichamtchi said SPND conducted what he termed small-scale nuclear experiments.

The council said the facility was responsible for nuclear weapons R&D, but did not elaborate.

In 2002, the council disclosed Iran’s secret nuclear weapons, including the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the Arak heavy water plant. In July 2013, the opposition asserted that Iran was building an underground nuclear facility, which was not confirmed by the West.

On Oct. 15, the United States welcomed the renewed nuclear negotiations with Iran. Iran’s chief negotiator Abbas Araqchi said his country submitted what he termed a comprehensive proposal to end the nuclear crisis.

“The proposal that we have introduced has the capacity to make a breakthrough,” Araqchi said.

  Abbas Araqchi, Arak, Iran regime said to employ 100 at nuclear weapons R&D center, Mehdi Abrichamtchi, Natanz, National Council of Resistance of Iran