In an important press update briefing of Dec. 19, 2024, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) regime opposition group reported on accelerated work by Iran to develop Exploding Bridgewire (EBW) nuclear detonators.
According to the Nov. 8, 2011 Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on the Iranian nuclear program, EBWs are a key element in the development of an implosion type nuclear device.
The IAEA was aware of Iran’s development of EBWs as far back as 2008 but Iran did not reveal to the IAEA why it needed them and has attempted to obscure their key importance for a nuclear weapon device.
The 2011 IAEA report goes on to note that Iran "has had access to information on the design concept of a multipoint initiation sequence used for nuclear explosive devices.
The IAEA has long been concerned about what it calls "Possible Military Dimensions to Iran’s Nuclear Programme," recognizing that Tehran has never provided it with access to all the documents, equipment, persons, and sites the IAEA deems necessary to fully monitor Iran’s nuclear program.
In an April 29, 2022 article at this site, I listed a number of the open source reports that indicate in sum the clear direction that Iran has been heading for many years, namely, the ability to deploy deliverable nuclear weapons.
As I noted there, much of what was included in the November 2011 IAEA report was later confirmed when Israel’s Mossad made off with a trove of documents from a Tehran warehouse in January 2016.
And more recently, we’ll note that the Israeli strike on Iran in late October 2024 included a targeted hit on the Taleghan 2 facility at the Parchin military complex, where nuclear weapons research on just such EBW detonators reportedly was going on.
Now, we fast forward to the NCRI briefing update in which NCRI’s WDC Deputy Director Alireza Jafarzadeh provided alarming new details about the Iranian regime’s apparently accelerated dash to a bomb.
Additional warnings have come from the IAEA’s Director General Rafael Grossi, after his November 2024 trip to Iran, when he cautioned that the "margins to maneuver are beginning to shrink," indicating that the ways to deal with the issue diplomatically are rapidly closing. Back on 18 August 2024, Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, the chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, stated that Iran could "declare itself a nuclear weapon state by the end of the year."
The updated NCRI briefing details included identification of the Center for Research and Expansion of Technologies on Explosions and Impact as a key element of Iran’s Organization for Advanced Defense Research (SPND in its Farsi acronym), both of which are subdivisions of Iran’s Ministry of Defense.
Jafarzadeh’s briefing named the Sanjarian site, first revealed by the NCRI in September 2009, as the locus of regime explosives testing and production, located inside the Parchin site.
Iran has attempted to disguise this work as related to the oil industry under the name of a front company: Arvin Kimia Abzaar.
With the recent Israeli takedown of Iranian proxies Hamas, Hezbollah, the collapse of the Damascus, Syria regime of Bashar al-Assad, in addition to destruction of Iran’s air defense systems in Israeli Air Force strikes earlier this year, the Iranian regime likely senses the walls closing in.
It may have taken the decision to accelerate progress towards a nuclear weapon as its last chance to cling to power, both regionally and internally.
But as the NCRI points out, its every move in pursuit of this goal is being revealed.
When the new Trump administration takes office on January 20, 2025, the Iranian regime’s nuclear dossier must be referred to the UN Security Council in order to have snapback sanctions reinstated and enforced.
As the NCRI notes, the balance of power across the Mideast region is shifting; there will never be a better opportunity — or more critical time — to take the steps necessary to prevent that regime from acquiring nuclear weapons.
The people of Iran deserve the chance to be free of this brutally oppressive regime and the world needs to be free of the threat of a nuclear-armed Iranian regime.
The full report from the NCRI may be read here.
Clare M. Lopez is the Founder/President of Lopez Liberty LLC. Read More Clare M. Lopez — Here.
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