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IRAN HAS NUCLEAR CAPABILITY
Forward from Terrorist List Server
>>> "Malcolm R.Innerarity" <m.innera@pcps.edu> 04/09/98 07:58am >>>
List:
Begin forwarded message...........
Iran has up to 4 nuclear bombs
By STEVE RODAN
Jerusalem Post
JERUSALEM (April 9) - Iran received several nuclear warheads from a
former Soviet republic in the early 1990s and Russian experts maintained
them, according to Iranian government documents relayed to Israel and
obtained by The Jerusalem Post.
The documents, deemed authentic by US congressional experts and still
being studied in Israel, contain correspondence between Iranian government
officials and leaders of the Revolutionary Guards that discusses Iran's
successful efforts to obtain nuclear warheads from former Soviet
republics.
"At this point, we can't say for certain whether these are genuine,"
a senior Israeli source said. "But they look awfully real."
A US government consultant said he is certain of the authenticity of
the documents. "They are real and we have had them for years," he said.
The documents appear to bolster reports from 1992 that Iran received
enriched uranium and up to four nuclear warheads from Kazakhstan, with
help from the Russian underworld.
A detailed account of the Iranian effort, released on January 20,
1992, by the US Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the
House Republican Research Committee, asserted that by the end of 1991
there was a "98 percent certainty that Iran already had all [or virtually
all] of the components required for two to three operational nuclear
weapons [aerial bombs and SSM warheads] made with parts purchased in the
ex-Soviet Moslem republics."
"I didn't give these reports credibility at the time," said Shai
Feldman, director of Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic
Studies. "It seemed like the kind of information that the Iranian
opposition put out. There were specific queries made and everybody said
there was no evidence of a warhead transfer."
But congressional sources and Israeli officials said Congress has
been alarmed by the continuing reports of Russian aid to Iran's nuclear
and non-conventional program. The sources said that they are drafting
legislation to stop the effort.
In one Iranian document obtained by the Post, dated December 26,
1991, the deputy head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards tells Atomic
Energy Agency head Rezi Amrullahi that "two war materiel of nuclear
nature" had arrived from Russia and were being held by the guards.
At the bottom of the document is a handwritten rebuke from a senior
Iranian intelligence officer asking both officials not to write and send
such documents to avoid leaks.
In another document, dated January 2, 1992, a senior Iranian
Revolutionary Guards official quotes an engineer identified as Turkan as
saying that the nuclear warheads are being stored in the Lavizan military
camp in the Teheran area. The engineer says that the warheads contain
flaws in the safety mechanism and he is waiting for Russian experts to
arrive and repair them.
An April 3, 1992, document discusses the production of a solid fuel
missile prototype, called Zalzal 300, completed in Lavizan which was soon
to be ready for launch. US congressional experts said the Zalzal is a
modification of the Chinese M-11 missile.
The US government consultant said the Iranian government
correspondence relayed to Israel is only a small portion of the hundreds
of documents about the Iranian effort to obtain nuclear materials,
including four nuclear warheads for the North Korean-developed No-Dong
missile.
The documents were obtained as US envoy Robert Gallucci held talks
here with government and intelligence agency leaders on Russian aid to
Iran's ballistic missile program.
"The government acts on priorities and at the top is the Iranian
missile program," an Israeli official said.
Israeli officials said that both Jerusalem and Washington agree on
the amount of progress achieved by Iran in developing a missile with a
range of 1,300 kilometers, which is able to reach Israel. The disagreement
is about whether Russia supports the technology transfer to Iran and
whether Moscow is capable of stopping the flow.
Israeli sources are said to have been impressed with Gallucci, who
replaced Frank Wisner as US President Bill Clinton's envoy to Moscow on
the Iranian missile issue. A senior official said Gallucci's appointment
reflects the Clinton administration's intention to intensify a campaign to
stop the Russian aid to Iran's missile program.
This Israeli assessment, disputed in defense circles, has led to a
decision by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to shelve efforts to lobby
Congress to pass sanctions against Russia, the official said. He said
Israel's friends in Congress have asked Netanyahu's government for advice
and were told that Jerusalem was giving the White House more time to
achieve results.
"So, Congress wants to go forward and not us," the official said.
"Certainly, we aren't pushing Congress. It doesn't mean that we won't do
so in the future."
************************************************************************
***Iran has nuclear weapons***
The report(s) from the Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare
mentioned below, and an update, are available on our WEB site.
The first report is titled:
** Iran's Strategy and Nuclear Capabilities
Size: 32 kb
Send a post to iran@cmep.com (only the address is required)
for the report.
** Iran's Nuclear Weapons- Update
Size: 12kb
Send a post to iran2@cmep.com (only the address is required)
for the report.
************************************************************************
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