Thursday, August 6, 2015

Satellite Imagery Suggests Iran Covering Up Nuclear Weapons Work at Parchin – Iran Denies It

Iranian Foreign Ministry denied reports that Iran was cleaning up suspected nuclear weapons site at Parchin military base. Satellite imagery of the site, widely published in the past 24 hours, shows probably crates, trucks and construction that may be linked to a renewed attempt to clean up before an inspection by the IAEA inspectors later this year.

In Tehran, the foreign ministry called the report “ridiculous,” saying any construction at the site is linked to “road repairs.” The White House challenged the assertion.

“For more than a decade, the Iranians had gone to great length to try to cover it up,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest of alleged nuclear weapons work at Parchin. “We’re not particularly concerned that over the course of the next couple of weeks they’re going to succeed in covering up something that they haven’t been able to cover up over the last decade.’ (AP, 6 August)

The IAEA suspects that Iran has experimented with high-explosive detonators for nuclear arms at the military facility south of Tehran and other weapons-related work elsewhere.

To read ISIS report on renewed activity at Parchin, please click here.


Satellite Image: 26 July 2015 DigitalGlobe imagery showing renewd activity at Parchin site (ISIS)

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

where is the Collin Powell, he knows how to read evidences.....about of mass destruction.

+A

Mark Pyruz said...

And so it begins. Just to keep track of the score, at least twice in the past ISIS has been wrong about alleged nuclear weaponization work in Iran. In fact, they've never been demonstrated right. (Maybe this time they will be?)

Expect allegations to continue during the agreement adoption phase and beyond.

And expect activities at the Parchin military industrial complex to also continue, unabated.

Big question? Parameters of the IAEA inspection regimen. Technical expert Salehi and security expert Shamkhani are the ones responsible on Iran's side. Their competency for input towards JCPOA and the IAEA agreement is and will be tested for some time.

Anonymous said...

Meh. What's a little lying, deception, and concealment among friends?

Nader Uskowi said...

Mark, are you saying that the imagery is bogus, or are you saying it shows road repair at Parchin just weeks prior to IAEA visit, as claimed by Iran's foreign ministry?

Nader Uskowi said...

+A, how do you read the imagery? Road repair at Parchin weeks prior to IAEA's visit of the site?

Anonymous said...

Mark Pyruz August 7, 2015 at 12:37 AM
Agreed,ISIS past bias and erroneous claims about the iri nuclear program speak for themselves and parchin is a large military industrial complex with continuous ongoing activities,to expect them to halt all activity there is ludicrous and finally why would iran wait until now literally at the last minute to sanitize a site it has previously allowed the iaea to visit on more than one occasion?,sadly this is just more good old western lies,half truths and propaganda.

Anonymous said...

The regime likes to cover up its potholes. Hence the "road repairs."

Nader Uskowi said...

Parchin is indeed a large military complex. The imagery however is from a small area inside Parchin where suspected weapons work were carried out. The Iranian foreign ministry is saying the work shown on the imagery is related to road repairs at the site.

Which part of yesterday's ISIS report have you found to be a lie? Do you believe the imagery is bogus? Iran's own foreign ministry does not dispute the authenticity of the imagery, what it disputes is the nature of the work at the site, calling it road repair. If the imagery is not bogus, what type of work do you believe is being conducted there?

Anonymous said...

The key word here is "suspected" in fact those previous allegations by ISIS were completely unproven if not discredited which in my opinion does absolutely nothing for their credibility in this case,the imagery may or may not be bogus I`m not qualified to judge satellite images or possible photo manipulation but in my book if you make an allegation the burden of proof is on you ie ISIS not iran,but let me put it another way Nader:Do you really think that iran would wait until now literally at the last minute to sanitize a facility that it had already allowed the iaea to inspect parts of it when it didnt have to,I mean come on,when one looks at it from that perspective then not only do these allegations not have any shred of credibility but they come off as frankly absurd.So which one do you believe Nader,which one of these seems more credible to you?.Sadly even with a deal in place the us propaganda war against irans nuclear program seems set to continue.

interested party said...

I believe the photo's are authentic. I just don't see how some 'debris, roof activity, oil spills and a small crate add up to an Iranian cover up. With so many foreign guests visiting soon for inspections maybe a modest upgrade seemed warranted. Looks hot down there. Hopefully the new roofing is just to provide some shade.

Nader Uskowi said...

Anon 12:36/5:20AM,

Iran has been trying to sanitize the site for over a decade, and the latest move could be continuation of that effort. It would have been much more effective and believable for Iran to say it was conducting the experiments but stopped it years ago. Now, these imageries are out, and experts should say if they show sanitization efforts by the government. This blogger and commentators who are not expert in the field of imagery cannot say just looking at these photos.

If I had to offer a non-scientific guess, I would say the photos do not look like road repair work, as claimed by Iran's foreign ministry. You don't work on the roofs of the buildings as part of repairing the roads!

Anonymous said...

Everywhere in the world constructions at the military sites take a place,....and the Parchin cannot be "frozen", when it needs to be operated and serve the needs of Iran's defense.
I would ask why israel can do everything in its 'defense' , but Iran not?.

Anonymous said...

Nader Uskowi August 8, 2015 at 11:59 AM
"Iran has been trying to sanitize the site for over a decade",No Nader that is what the west has claimed and by the way it has never,ever been able to produce a shred of proof to back up those allegations,sadly you seem to believe the western view that iran should have to prove its innocence,ie prove a negative,when it is up to the west to prove irans guilt,which by the way is something it has never managed to do,unless of course you happen to take things like the infamous"laptop of death" seriously,also your post doesnt make much sense if iran had stopped its experiments years ago then why would it be sanitising the site now at this late stage,a site it has allowed previous inspections of,a site that is in fact a large military facility which I would imagine has a huge amount of daily ongoing activity taking place on it,do you think iran should simply halt any and all activity there simply to satisfy the west?.Considering the past history of the people making these unsubstantiated claims one should at the very least take them with a very,very large grain[truckload?] of salt,its a pity Nader that you dont seem very willing to do that.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:49 PM

You're right the poor innocent regime doesn't need to sanitize the site because it was being used by interflora delivery agency to store flowers for later dispatch via ballistic missiles to foreign locations.

Anonymous said...

AnonymousAugust 9, 2015 at 8:23 AM
Which part of: "a site that is in fact a large military facility which I would imagine has a huge amount of daily ongoing activity taking place on it" did you not seem to understand?