An Iranian resistance group said Thursday it has confirmed that the Islamic regime in Tehran has increased efforts to research and manufacture detonators for nuclear weapons after U.S. intelligence earlier this year indicated Iran had resumed nuclear weapons development.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran-U.S. Representative Office (NCRI-US) told a news conference in Washington that the expanded testing of the detonator technology is taking place at a facility located in the regime’s Sanjarian site.
In recent years, Iran has also sped up its enrichment of uranium, a key building block of a nuclear bomb.
“While the international community and the IAEA have mainly focused on the amount and the enrichment level of uranium Tehran possesses, which would provide fissile material for the Bomb, the central part, namely the weaponization, has continued with little scrutiny,” NCRI said in a report reviewed by Just the News.
“The regime has used deceptive tactics to prevent any mechanism for verification, and it has yet to provide an opportunity or the means for the IAEA to have a satisfactory answer to the inquiries it has raised,” it continued.
The effort is being concealed under the cover of an ostensibly private entity, Arvin Kimia Abzaar Company, which the resistance groups says is affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of the Iranian armed forces dedicated to preserving the revolutionary regime.
According to the group, two figures from the regime’s Organization for Advanced Defense Research are leading that private company, Saeed Borji and Akbar Motallebizadeh. The Trump administration sanctioned both Borji and Motallebizadeh along with other entities and individuals associated with the SPND because of the department’s key role in the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
NCRI-US says that it has observed an increase in construction and activity at the site where their company has ramped up operations in the outskirts of Tehran, the Iranian capital. The group included satellite imagery of the sites in its report, which was reviewed by Just the News ahead of a press conference on Thursday.
Earlier this year the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence abandoned its longstanding assurance that "Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities necessary to produce a testable nuclear device."
The August 2024 intelligence update highlighted several of Iran’s efforts to advance its nuclear program. "Iran continues to increase the size of its uranium stockpile, increase its enrichment capacity, and develop, manufacture, and operate advanced centrifuges,” the update reads.
The ODNI also warned that Iran has "expanded its nuclear program, reduced International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitoring, and undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so."
The further testing of detonation technologies would constitute such an activity. Iran previously faced scrutiny from the IAEA from 2008 to 2011 over efforts to refine its Exploding Bridge Wire technology, which the United States first developed during the Manhattan Project. A reliable EBW detonator would allow the regime to field an active nuclear weapon.
“Our revelation today shows that the regime has no transparency related to its program for building an atomic bomb and is moving towards building the bomb at a rapid pace,” NCRI said.
The report comes as President-elect Donald Trump is set to begin his second term in January. The new president has pledged to resume his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran designed to turn the screws on the country and prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon and destabilizing the Middle East through its proxy forces.
Some predict Trump will take an even tougher approach to the regime after a man with ties to Iran was charged in an assassination plot against the Republican nominee.
