Iranian dissidents urge immediate nuclear checks

By David Brunnstrom

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An Iranian opposition group called on Wednesday for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to immediately inspect facilities in Iran which it said were at the core of an accelerated nuclear weapons program.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran dismissed a December U.S. National Intelligence Estimate that Tehran stopped trying to make a nuclear warhead in 2003, shortly after the group first revealed the country's nuclear enrichment activity.

It charged that Iran had established a new command and control centre for the program coded-named Lavizan-2 at Mojdeh on the southeastern outskirts of Tehran last April, near the site of a previous facility razed after its exposure.

The NCRI said the Iranian government was also actively pursuing production of nuclear warheads at a complex code-named B1-Nori-8500 at Khojir about 20 km (12 miles) further southeast.

Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and aimed at producing electricity, but its concealment of uranium enrichment activities until 2003 and curbs on U.N. inspections have fuelled international suspicions that it is intended to produce weapons.

At a Brussels news conference, NCRI foreign affairs chief Mohammad Mohaddessin said his information came from "hundreds" of sources including people working at the sites and within the offices of the Iranian leadership and bureaucracy.

He showed satellite images and called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect the sites immediately and interview the scientists running them.

"The Iranian regime is undoubtedly developing the nuclear bomb. None of the essential work has been halted ... All three parts have been speeded up," he said, referring to uranium enrichment, weaponization and missile development.