Iran dismisses claim it is building secret nuclear site

TEHRAN,July 13(MNA) – Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi dismissed the claim made by the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) that Iran is secretly building a new nuclear site. “This claim is a continuation of fabricated stories by the bankrupt group of Monafeqin (hypocrites),” Araqchi said in an interview with the Mehr News Agency on Friday, adding, “The news is false, and we reject it.” “The terrorist group of Monafeqin is so disgraced that such reports by them are not worth responding to,” he added. According to Reuters, the MKO claimed on Thursday it had obtained information about a secret underground nuclear site under construction in Iran, without specifying what kind of atomic activity it believed would be carried out there. In 2010, when the terrorist group said it had evidence of another new nuclear facility, west of the capital Tehran, U.S. officials said they had known about the site for years and had no reason to believe it was nuclear. The latest allegation comes less than a month after the election of a moderate, Hassan Rouhani, as Iran’s new president raised hopes for a resolution of the nuclear dispute with the West. The Islamic Republic says its nuclear energy program is entirely peaceful and rejects U.S. and Israeli accusations that it is really seeking the capability to make nuclear weapons. The MKO claimed on Thursday that its members inside the country had “obtained reliable information on a new and completely secret site designated for (Iran’s) nuclear project.” The terrorist group also claimed that the site was inside a complex of tunnels beneath mountains 10 kilometers east of the town of Damavand, itself about 50 kilometers northeast of Tehran. A spokesman for the group said he could not say what sort of nuclear work would be conducted there, but that the companies and people involved showed it was a nuclear site. Asked about the report, International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman Gill Tudor said in Vienna, “The agency will assess the information that has been provided, as we do with any new information we receive.” A Western diplomat accredited to the IAEA told Reuters, “I have heard nothing. My first suspicion is that it is like the 2010 revelation - a tunnel facility the Iranians are keeping quiet, but no known link to the nuclear program.”