FIRST ON FOX – A new report from an Iranian resistance group alleges that the Islamic regime has Attempts to evade US sanctions It is transferring personnel and resources to a university closely linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in order to gain control of its nuclear programs.
“Ever since the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) exposed the Iranian regime’s previously undeclared nuclear program in 2002 … the regime has consistently thwarted the IAEA’s efforts to uncover the full scope of its nuclear weapons ambitions,” Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the NCRI’s Washington office, told Fox News Digital.
“Our revelations have shown that Tehran’s nuclear program has always been about building an atomic bomb, and it is run by the IRGC,” he argued. “The weaponization part of the nuclear program has not only remained intact, but has also expanded and been enhanced without any meaningful checks.” Jafarzadeh first exposed details of Iran’s nuclear program in 2002.
NCRI released a report discussing how Iran moved its nuclear program personnel and resources to the Islamic Azad University due to US sanctions. The US listed the Organization for Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) On the international sanctions listand university personnel asked researchers to “present their activities as serving shell companies”.
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The NCRI claimed to have collected information from inside Iran through the People’s Mojahedin Organization’s (MEK) network, including reports from inside “regime institutions”.
Iran’s first working nuclear power plant will be operational on April 28, 2024 in Bushehr, Iran. (Photo: Morteza Nikobazal/NoorPhoto via Getty Images)
“To preserve SPND, the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) has attempted to create a new and better cover to continue its operations, ostensibly working on a series of advanced military matters to distract attention and reduce focus on its primary goal of developing nuclear weapons,” the report said.
Shortly before his sudden death, former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi passed the SPND Act in April, ordering the Defense Ministry to implement the plan within a month and making the SPND “an independent legal entity having the nature of a public institution and having financial, transactional, and administrative independence.”
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An Iranian military truck carrying surface-to-air missiles passes a portrait of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a parade to mark the country’s annual Army Day in Tehran, Iran April 18, 2018. (Photo: Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
This law gives the organization the right to operate in Iran without complying with public accounting laws. According to the report, Islamic Azad University SThe system is located throughout the country and is one of the largest systems of universities in the world, with over 1 million students and over 50,000 academic staff. The university was established with the blessing of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran
“The use of the Islamic Azad University for nuclear research is consistent with the regime’s past actions,” the NCRI wrote.
Science, Research and Technology Minister Mohammad Ali Zolfigol, right, speaks to Islamic Azad University President Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2023. Tehranchi was reportedly involved in the regime’s nuclear weapons project. (Sarah Abdullahi/Borna News/ATPImages/Getty Images)
The NCRI report covers several key figures Islamic Azad University There are several individuals with ties to the SPND, such as Mohammad Medhi Tehranchi, who is currently the university’s president and was formerly a physics professor at Beheshti University, who “has close ties with the SPND.” Tehranchi was reportedly involved in the regime’s nuclear weapons project and worked directly with Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was seen as the father of the regime’s nuclear weapons program.
The group also identified Jamshid Sabbaghzadeh, the head of the university’s Science and Research Center, which is “the largest university research center in Iran.” Previously, he worked on laser research and joined the Atomic Energy Organization to work on nuclear enrichment.
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Jafarzadeh lamented the “appeasement” policy of “Western powers”, arguing that Iran had received little punishment for its actions in order to evade sanctions.
“In many ways, the Iranian regime is using its nuclear program as a tool to blackmail the international community, demanding more concessions, while at the same time accelerating its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons,” Jafarzadeh said.
“Tehran’s strategy has prevented decisive action against other aspects of its malign behaviour, such as gross human rights violations, terrorism, hostage-taking, and aggressive intervention in the Middle East,” he said, stressing that the only way to bring about real change at this stage would come from within, through regime change “led by the Iranian people and their organized resistance.”
The US National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital by the time of publication.
