According to the NCRI, the Iranian opposition movement which claims to have a highly effective network of activists working inside the country. the headquarters of the new research unit is based at Mojdeh, in the Lavizan region.
The unit has been divided into seven subdivisions which each have responsibility for conducting a specific area of research. These include working on the fissile material used for making a nuclear weapons, conducting research into the different metals used for making a warhead, and developing a detonator for such a device.
Many of the scientists working for the new unit are in direct contact with the newly-constructed underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordow, another top-secret complex whose existence was only revealed three years ago by Barack Obama.
Israeli intelligence officials suspect Iran has built the complex, which is located deep beneath the mountains on the outskirts of the holy city of Qom, to conceal its attempts to develop nuclear weapons from the international community.
Israel’s deepening concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme has raised fears that the Jewish state may be planning to launch unilateral air strikes against Iran’s key nuclear facilities later this year.
Tom Donilon, the US National Security Advisor, visited Jerusalem at the weekend for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Israeli security officials amid mounting concern in Washington that the Israelis are in the final stages of planning an attack.
Mr Donilon, who sought to reassure Mr Netanyahu that Washington would not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, is one of several high-ranking Obama administration officials to visit Israel in recent days to try to persuade the Israelis to refrain from taking unilateral action.
The Obama administration argues that the latest round of economic sanctions applied against Iran are starting to have an impact, and explains Tehran’s recent decision to resume negotiations over the future of its nuclear programme after a break of three years. Washington wants to give the talks more time, and is therefore exerting intense diplomatic pressure on Israel to exercise restraint.
Yesterday Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, became the latest high-profile visitor to arrive in Jerusalem to lobby Mr Netanyahu. (quotes to come later) Mrs Clinton has not been Israel in two years, having previously stated that she would not visit until there was progress to report on the Middle East peace process.
With no signs of a breakthrough, State Department officials claimed that the purpose of her trip was to “exchange impressions” about the impact of the Arab Spring on the Middle East, but there was little doubt that Iran was at the centre of her real agenda.
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