Non-Subscriber Extract
Tehran takes steps to protect nuclear facilities
- Article Tools
| 23 January 2006 |
By Robin Hughes JDW Deputy Editor
London
For some months, Iran has been pursuing a clandestine programme in co-operation with North Korea, estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, to construct a network of underground tunnels to conceal and protect its military nuclear programme. The tunnel project includes the construction of 10,000 m2 of underground halls, with tunnels measuring hundreds of metres branching off from each, the sources said.
The construction programme, diplomatic sources told JDW, is being financed under a special budget that has been assigned separately from the official Iranian budget. The Iranian authorities, they added, are "currently on high alert in anticipation of air strikes against their facilities".
A delegation of North Koreans, led by Lyu-Do Myong, a leading North Korean government expert on underground construction, had by June 2005 arrived in Tehran to help design and construct the underground tunnel network, which is designed to protect Iran's military nuclear facilities. During the same period, the legal department of the IRGC, which is responsible for the project, summoned "dozens of managers from leading Iranian construction companies to sign joint-venture contracts with the IRGC," the sources said.
According to the sources, "all these joint-venture contracts have been signed and construction is currently under way. The companies selected are at present involved in intensive construction and maintenance work for massive shielding of the tunnels branching to the facilities at Natanz and Isfahan".
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