WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- An organization financed by the Iraqi government Wednesday accused the Iranian government of constructing two secret nuclear facilities in the desert south of Tehran as part of Iran's weapons of mass destruction program.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said Wednesday that two massive facilities were under construction in Iran that would be involved in the production of weapons-grade nuclear fuel. The facilities, he said, had been kept hidden from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. affiliated organization that regulates nuclear activities worldwide.
Jafarzadeh's group has been designated a foreign terrorist organization since 1997 by the State Department.
Council leaders, speaking at a press conference a block away from the White House, denied that they or their members support terrorism. They claimed that many American lawmakers have recognized the council as a valid resistance movement and said that they have been permitted by U.S. officials to continue operating out of their downtown Washington, D.C. office.
"This is a movement that has the popular support of Iranians inside and outside Iran," Jafarzadeh said.
The IAEA has said that Iran abides by non-proliferation agreement guidelines. However, there have been many allegations of a nuclear weapons program in the country, and the United States has labeled Iran a state sponsor of terrorism.
Earlier this month a U.S. delegation pressed Russia's defense ministry to abandon plans to expand a light water nuclear reactor in the Iranian port of Bushehr, a plant U.S. officials have said may be a cover for a clandestine nuclear weapons program.
According to information gathered by council representatives inside Iran, one budding nuclear facility is located in the desert town of Natanz and exists under the cover of a desert eradication program, Jafarzadeh said. Surrounded by barbed wire, the site is approximately one million square feet. It includes two large halls 25 feet in the ground, surrounded by concrete walls 8 1/2 feet thick, he said. The facility will be used to hold heavy water tanks, which can be used in the production of nuclear fuel, he said.
The second site is located in Arak, close to the banks of the Qara-Chai river. Begun in 1996, that facility operates under the cover of a Tehran-based energy company and already has installed heavy water tanks to assist in the production of enriched uranium, the spokesman said.
Jafazadeh said the council had informed U.S. and U.N. officials of the two sites. He declined to state specifically to whom he had provided the information.
The State Department said Wednesday that they could not comment on any intelligence regarding Iran's nuclear program. However, spokesman Philip Reeker said that the group was still on the state terror list and said that he was not aware of any contacts between the organization and U.S. officials.
"The so-called NCRI, National Council of Resistance of Iran, we consider them to be a foreign terrorist organization, considered to be under the umbrella of the Mujaheddin-e-khalq organization, MEK," Reeker said.
Jafazadeh confirmed that the MEK was one of the groups within the National Council, a group whose stated aim is to "remove the clerical dictatorship" in Iran and establish a "pluralistic, democratic and secular government." But he said the group was not a terrorist organization.
The MEK is considered an Iraqi-sponsored terror group aimed at destabilizing the Iranian regime, according to State Department reports.
Under U.S. law, foreign terrorist organizations cannot receive funding from any individual or entity within the United States or subject to its jurisdiction. Members of such organizations may not receive visas to come to the United States. However, the law does not preclude them from actually operating, said Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra.
Sierra said he could not comment specifically on the National Council of Resistance's activities.
Jafazadeh said that the terror designation had been part of an U.S. policy to appease the Iranian mullahs and leadership. The council has sued for a removal of the designation in U.S. courts.
The organization was placed on the list in 1997. According to press reports, at that time lawmakers from 15 countries, including 225 Americans, signed statements protesting the designation.
