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Iran Covertly Developing Nuclear Warheads to Be Placed on Missiles, Dissident Group Reveals
Unidentified men carrying a model of Iran’s first-ever hypersonic missile, Fattah, past a mosque during a gathering to celebrate a failed Iranian attack on Israel, in Tehran, Iran, on April 15, 2024. Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
Iran has covertly ramped up efforts to construct nuclear warheads for solid-fuel missiles at two sites, a coalition of Iranian opposition groups revealed on Friday.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which seeks to overthrow the country’s Islamist regime, unveiled a new report detailing how the nuclear warheads are intended for solid-fuel missiles with a 3,000-kilometer range and are being constructed at both the Shahrud and Semnan missile test sites in Iran. The initiatives are being spearheaded by the Organization for Advanced Defense Research (SPND), which is responsible for managing Iran’s nuclear weaponization efforts.
“Now, we have documented evidence showing that the missile sites in Shahrud and Semnan are fully coordinated with the regime’s nuclear weaponization body, SPND,” NCRI representative Soona Samsami said at a press conference discussing the group’s findings.
The report was sourced from the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), an Iranian dissident network.
According to the NCRI, the regime’s nuclear efforts are being furtively pursued under the guise of being parts of a new “space initiative.”
While Shahrud has traditionally been used to develop and launch new rockets and satellites, the facility has been collaborating with the SPND to advance Iran’s nuclear ambitions, NCRI claimed. To bolster these efforts, SPND has allegedly deployed new personnel at the Shahrud missile test facility and “camouflaged” its efforts as a “satellite program” when, in reality, they are developing a satellite communication system to track the path of nuclear warheads. Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Ali Jafarabadi has helped develop the Ghaem-100 missile — the main nuclear warhead missile carrier — at the Shahrud site, NCRI said on Friday.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), discusses new report about Iranian nuclear efforts on Jan. 31, 2025 in Washington, DC. Photo: Screenshot
Moreover, the regime is reportedly constructing liquid-fuel missiles and nuclear warheads at a facility outside of the Iranian city of Semnan. The SPND has allegedly expanded the mostly underground facility for the stated purpose of “space operations.” The Semnan site currently houses eight complexes, up from two in 2005. A series of underground tunnels connects the complexes to each other, according to NCRI. The SPND Geophysics team — led by key experts Mohammad Javad Zaker, Hamed Aber, and Farhad Moradiani Khosrowabad — uses the Semnan site to conduct underground research regarding “high explosive detonations,” which NCRI claimed is “a key part in the development of nuclear weapons.”
Iran has gone to extensive lengths to hide its alleged nuclear proliferation ambitions and evade accountability from the international community, NCRI said on Friday, noting that SPND attempted to conceal Iran’s activities by creating the “Directorate for Nuclear Treaties,” an office which supposedly helps the regime stay in “compliance” with mandates imposed on its nuclear program. The office engages in negotiations with the United States and Europe to supposedly give updates and receive feedback on the nuclear program.
Iran has claimed that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes rather than building weapons. However, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported in December that Iran had greatly accelerated uranium enrichment to close to weapons grade at its Fordow site dug into a mountain. The UK, France, and Germany said in a statement that there is no “credible civilian justification” for Iran’s recent nuclear activity, arguing it “gives Iran the capability to rapidly produce sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons.”
NCRI argued, according to a confidential Iranian internal memo, that Tehran is “attempting to buy time through negotiating” with the United States and Europe to “maintain the current status quo to complete its nuclear weapons program.” According to the memo, the regime wants to prolong current negotiations for six months to circumvent United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 — a 2015 resolution which outlines an inspection process for Iranian nuclear sites and establishes an end date for UN sanctions against Tehran.
US President Donald Trump, who withdrew from a 2015 deal with Iran that placed temporary restrictions on the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions, has, along with several European countries, expressed interest in renegotiating a new nuclear agreement with the regime.
However, NCRI recommended that the international community reinstate previous UN sanctions against Iran that were lifted under the 2015 accord. Further, the group said that all Iranian nuclear sites should be closed and the IAEA should be given unfettered access to the facilities for inspection.
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Trump Says Iran Must Give Up Dream of Nuclear Weapon or Face Harsh Response
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
President Donald Trump said on Monday he believes Iran is intentionally delaying a nuclear deal with the United States and that it must abandon any drive for a nuclear weapon or face a possible military strike on Tehran’s atomic facilities.
“I think they’re tapping us along,” Trump told reporters after US special envoy Steve Witkoff met in Oman on Saturday with a senior Iranian official.
Both Iran and the United States said on Saturday that they held “positive” and “constructive” talks in Oman. A second round is scheduled for Saturday, and a source briefed on the planning said the meeting was likely to be held in Rome.
The source, speaking to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said the discussions are aimed at exploring what is possible, including a broad framework of what a potential deal would look like.
“Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Asked if US options for a response include a military strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities, Trump said: “Of course it does.”
Trump said the Iranians need to move fast to avoid a harsh response because “they’re fairly close” to developing a nuclear weapon.
The US and Iran held indirect talks during former President Joe Biden’s term but they made little, if any progress. The last known direct negotiations between the two governments were under then-President Barack Obama, who spearheaded the 2015 international nuclear deal that Trump later abandoned.
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No Breakthrough in Gaza Talks, Egyptian and Palestinian Sources Say
Families and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas gather to demand a deal that will bring back all the hostages held in Gaza, outside a meeting between hostage representatives and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem, Jan. 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The latest round of talks in Cairo to restore the defunct Gaza ceasefire and free Israeli hostages ended with no apparent breakthrough, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said on Monday.
The sources said Hamas had stuck to its position that any agreement must lead to an end to the war in Gaza.
Israel, which restarted its military campaign in Gaza last month after a ceasefire agreed in January unraveled, has said it will not end the war until Hamas is stamped out. The terrorist group has ruled out any proposal that it lay down its arms.
But despite that fundamental disagreement, the sources said a Hamas delegation led by the group’s Gaza Chief Khalil Al-Hayya had shown some flexibility over how many hostages it could free in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel should a truce be extended.
An Egyptian source told Reuters the latest proposal to extend the truce would see Hamas free an increased number of hostages. Israeli minister Zeev Elkin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, told Army Radio on Monday that Israel was seeking the release of around 10 hostages, raised from previous Hamas consent to free five.
Hamas has asked for more time to respond to the latest proposal, the Egyptian source said.
“Hamas has no problem, but it wants guarantees Israel agrees to begin the talks on the second phase of the ceasefire agreement” leading to an end to the war, the Egyptian source said.
AIRSTRIKES
Hamas terrorists freed 33 Israeli hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees during the six-week first phase of the ceasefire which began in January. But the second phase, which was meant to begin at the start of March and lead to the end of the war, was never launched.
Meanwhile, 59 Israeli hostages remain in the hands of the terrorists. Israel believes up to 24 of them are alive.
Palestinians say the wave of Israeli attacks since the collapse of the ceasefire has been among the deadliest and most intense of the war, hitting an exhausted population surviving in the enclave’s ruins.
In Jabalia, a community on Gaza’s northern edge, rescue workers in orange vests were trying to smash through concrete with a sledgehammer to recover bodies buried underneath a building that collapsed in an Israeli strike.
Feet and a hand of one person could be seen under a concrete slab. Men carried a body wrapped in a blanket. Workers at the scene said as many as 25 people had been killed.
The Israeli military said it had struck there against terrorists planning an ambush.
In Khan Younis in the south, a camp of makeshift tents had been shredded into piles of debris by an airstrike. Families had returned to poke through the rubbish in search of belongings.
“We used to live in houses. They were destroyed. Now, our tents have been destroyed too. We don’t know where to stay,” said Ismail al-Raqab, who returned to the area after his family fled the raid before dawn.
EGYPT’S SISI MEETS QATARI EMIR
The leaders of the two Arab countries that have led the ceasefire mediation efforts, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, met in Doha on Sunday. The Egyptian source said Sisi had called for additional international guarantees for a truce agreement, beyond those provided by Egypt and Qatar themselves.
US President Donald Trump, who has backed Israel’s decision to resume its campaign and called for the Palestinian population of Gaza to leave the territory, said last week that progress was being made in returning the hostages.
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Iranian Foreign Minister to Visit Moscow Ahead of Second Iran-US Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks as he meets with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein, in Baghdad, Iraq October 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ahmed Saad/File Photo
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will visit Russia this week ahead of a planned second round of talks between Tehran and Washington aimed at resolving Iran’s decades-long nuclear stand-off with the West.
Araqchi and US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held talks in Oman on Saturday, during which Omani envoy Badr al-Busaidi shuttled between the two delegations sitting in different rooms at his palace in Muscat.
Both sides described the talks in Oman as “positive,” although a senior Iranian official told Reuters the meeting “was only aimed at setting the terms of possible future negotiations.”
Italian news agency ANSA reported that Italy had agreed to host the talks’ second round, and Iraq’s state news agency said Araqchi told his Iraqi counterpart that talks would be held “soon” in the Italian capital under Omani mediation.
Tehran has approached the talks warily, doubting the likelihood of an agreement and suspicious of Trump, who has threatened to bomb Iran if there is no deal.
Washington aims to halt Tehran’s sensitive uranium enrichment work – regarded by the United States, Israel and European powers as a path to nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is solely for civilian energy production.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Araqchi will “discuss the latest developments related to the Muscat talks” with Russian officials.
Moscow, a party to Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact, has supported Tehran’s right to have a civilian nuclear program.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on vital state matters, distrusts the United States, and Trump in particular.
But Khamenei has been forced to engage with Washington in search of a nuclear deal due to fears that public anger at home over economic hardship could erupt into mass protests and endanger the existence of the clerical establishment, four Iranian officials told Reuters in March.
Tehran’s concerns were exacerbated by Trump’s speedy revival of his “maximum pressure” campaign when he returned to the White House in January.
During his first term, Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic regime.
Since 2019, Iran has far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on uranium enrichment, producing stocks at a high level of fissile purity, well above what Western powers say is justifiable for a civilian energy program and close to that required for nuclear warheads.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has raised the alarm regarding Iran’s growing stock of 60% enriched uranium, and reported no real progress on resolving long-running issues, including the unexplained presence of uranium traces at undeclared sites.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi will visit Tehran on Wednesday, Iranian media reported, in an attempt to narrow gaps between Tehran and the agency over unresolved issues.
“Continued engagement and cooperation with the agency is essential at a time when diplomatic solutions are urgently needed,” Grossi said on X on Monday.
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