US embassy cable - 05VIENNA2684

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VIENNA 002684 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR NP/MNA, NEA, EUR/PGI, EUR/ERA, EUR/AGS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KNNP, MNUC, PREL, PGOV, ETTC, IR, AU, UNSC, EUN 
SUBJECT:  IRAN EXILE GROUP SAYS NEW REGIME DETERMINED TO 
 
 
BUILD NUCLEAR WEAPONS 
 
REFS:  A) VIENNA 2254  B) VIENNA 2270 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified. 
 
1.  (SBU) SUMMARY: The Paris-based National Council of 
 
Resistance of Iran (NCRI) claimed at an August 8 press 
 
conference in Vienna that the new Iranian regime was 
 
determined to continue its nuclear program "to build the 
 
bomb."  An NCRI official argued that the "cat and mouse 
 
game" with the IAEA and Western negotiators was designed 
 
to buy time and Western concessions for the new regime. 
 
He called for immediate referral of the dispute to the UN 
 
Security Council.  The official quoted what he said were 
 
internal Iranian government documents to support his 
 
allegations.  Two exiled Iranian nuclear experts who 
 
attended the press conference underlined the NCRI's 
 
accusations against the new Iranian regime.  End Summary. 
 
2.  (SBU) NCRI spokesman Dr. Farid Soleimani and Iranian 
 
expatriate scientists Dr. Ali Reza Assar and Dr. 
 
Manouchehr Fakhimi held a well-attended press conference 
 
in Vienna on August 8 to air allegations against the new 
 
Iranian regime. According to the Iranian exile group: 
 
-- The new Iranian regime is continuing to pursue a 
 
clandestine nuclear program.  The claims about the 
 
program being dedicated to civil energy production, they 
 
said, are "a blatant lie;" Iran's oil and gas reserves 
 
render the cover story of a civilian program absurd. 
 
-- The IAEA is "being fooled" by the new Iranian regime, 
 
as centrifuges are shuffled from one site to another. 
 
-- This "cat and mouse game" with the West only serves to 
 
buy time and concessions from the EU. 
 
-- The EU and U.S. should get tough with Iran and refer 
 
the matter immediately to the UN Security Council. 
 
-- Placing the Iranian exile group "People's Mujaheddin" 
 
on international terrorist lists was "a major mistake." 
 
"Internal" Iranian Government Report 
 
------------------------------------ 
 
3.  (SBU) NCRI spokesman Soleimani referred to an 
 
internal Revolutionary Guard report entitled "Appraisal 
 
of Two Years of Talks with the EU," which refers to 
 
assembling "thousands of centrifuges."  The regime 
 
applauds itself on a successful strategy vis-a-vis the 
 
EU, which allowed Iran to continue its nuclear program 
 
while winning important concessions from the EU. 
 
Further, the internal report refers to the "weak reaction 
 
by the EU in May 2005" and "weak language by El Baradei 
 
in June 2005" as major successes of Iran's "appeasement 
 
strategy."  According to Soleimani, the report concludes, 
 
"the EU and the U.S. must now accommodate our demands." 
 
NCRI Assesses Impact of Ahmadinejad Election 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
4.  (SBU) According to the NCRI panel, Ahmadinejad's 
 
election as President "has clearly led to a 
 
militarization of Iranian politics."  For example, the 
 
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Council (IRGC) was now 
 
"increasingly acting as a political party.  The IRGC was 
 
now in charge of security, police, and intelligence 
 
agencies, and crackdowns on demonstrators have become 
 
more severe than before."  The NCRI predicts that the new 
 
regime will now include Revolutionary Guard members in 
 
top government positions.  Further, Iran's new regime was 
 
"determined to push its agenda in Iraq" by launching a 
 
"vast campaign to empower fundamentalists there." 
 
Nuclear Program 
 
--------------- 
 
5.  (SBU) According to the NCRI spokesman, there is no 
 
doubt that the new regime will speed up plans to develop 
 
nuclear capabilities, since "orders have gone out... to 
 
have all resources go to the nuclear program."  NCRI 
 
spokesman Soleimani said that Revolutionary Guard 
 
Brigadier General Jafari Sahroudi, who allegedly was 
 
involved in the 1989 assassination of three Kurdish 
 
leaders in Vienna (reftels), has assumed a key role in 
 
this scheme.  Soleimani stated that the Iranian nuclear 
 
program was "completely under the control of the 
 
Revolutionary Guards."  He noted several nuclear research 
 
facilities to watch in addition to the known sites, 
 
especially two campuses of Malek Ashtar University. 
 
6.  (SBU) Soleimani quoted from an Iranian parliament 
 
(Majlis) report dated February 2004, "obtained from 
 
sources inside Iran," which showed the Majlis had not 
 
known of the clandestine nuclear program at that time. 
 
Exile Scientists Confirm Plans For Nuclear Program 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
7.  (SBU) Iranian scientist Dr. Ali Reza Assar, a former 
 
Revolutionary Guard advisor, added that, based on his 
 
contacts with Revolutionary Guard officials in 1986-1987, 
 
it was clear that a secret uranium enrichment program was 
 
already underway at that time.  He said he had frequently 
 
overheard statements from Iranian officials that "we need 
 
a nuclear deterrent."  The revolutionary government had 
 
earmarked "hundreds of millions of dollars" in the 1980s 
 
for development of nuclear weapons. 
 
8.  (SBU) Iranian geologist Manouchehr Fakhimi called 
 
Iran's claim that its oil reserves would soon be depleted 
 
"absurd."  Iran had proven oil reserves to last at least 
 
75 years and natural gas reserves for 250 years.  Fakhimi 
 
claimed that regime was continuing plutonium production 
 
with centrifuges and was seeking supplies of beryllium, 
 
which, in combination with copper and polonium 210, can 
 
be used to build nuclear bombs. 
 
VAN VOORST