Iran's Secret Nuclear Enrichment Plant Is Drawing More Scrutiny After This Weeks Nuclear Agreement

Iran’s Fordo Nuclear Facility

New York Times: Nuclear Plant in Iranian Desert Emerges as Flash Point in Talks

The site looms up from the Iranian desert like something out of a thriller novel, ringed by antiaircraft batteries, a security perimeter two miles around, and huge tunnels that lead deep into the mountainous complex.

Welcome to Fordo. Once a covert site of Iran’s sprawling nuclear program, then a closely monitored uranium enrichment plant, it is now a flash point in this week’s preliminary nuclear deal between the West and Tehran. The question is whether the proposed conversion of the site to a peaceful research center will prove effective or instead produce an illusion that eventually aids Iran’s pursuit of an atom bomb.

Fordo — some 20 miles from the holy city of Qum, deep inside an Iranian Revolutionary Guards base — came to public attention in 2009 when President Obama announced its existence.

The secret plant, Mr. Obama said, “represents a direct challenge to the basic foundation of the nonproliferation regime.” The Iranians, he added, “are going to have to come clean.”

WNU Editor: This site .... buried deep within a mountain .... was built for only one thing .... enriching nuclear material to develop an atomic bomb. The fact that it will still remain operational .... albeit on a smaller scale .... does not give me confidence for the future.

Update: This is so true .... Analysis: Iran deal's missing details spell trouble (Oren Dorell, USA Today)