Posted: November 07, 2011
9:21 pm Eastern
By Reza Kahlili
© 2011 WND
 Vladimir Putin |
Editor’s Note:The writer is the author of“A Time to Betray,”a book about his double life as a CIA agent in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Although the Iranian regime is under four sets of U.N. sanctions for its illegal nuclear activity, an Iranian delegation has traveled clandestinely to Russia to negotiate a secret, expanded nuclear pact between the two countries worth nearly $40 billion, according to a report.
The deal is expected to result in five nuclear plants for Iran.
According to anFarsi-language reportby the opposition group Green Experts of Iran, the two countries agreed that Russia would sell Iran plants refurbished from components based on outdated technology that caused the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe, the worst nuclear meltdown until Japan’s disaster earlier this year.
In a separate addendum, Iran not only must provide full insurance coverage for the installation and launch of the nuclear plants but also must assume full responsibility for all legal and international issues that may arise from technical or radioactive-leak problems, the report said.
The Iranian delegation, which met with Vladimir Putin, the real power in Russia, while on the visit earlier this year, agreed never to file a claim with any international organization irrespective of any events stemming from the secret pact.
The real goal for the Iranian government might be revealed in its request for Russia also to construct as fast as possible two fully equipped nuclear labs as an annex to the nuclear facilities in Arak and Isfahan. The labs would help launch BN-600 reactors and produce highly enriched uranium.
The labs would cost the Iranians an extra $7 billion.
This section of the contract is due to be signed this month. Evidently, the enriched uranium produced by the BN-600 will be used almost exclusively for military purposes, and all plant operations will be coordinated by Khatam-al-Anbia, the business arm of the Revolutionary Guards, the report said.
On Oct. 25, 2007, the Guards’ base of Khatam-al-Anbia was added to the Specially Designated National list by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for its involvement in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and its delivery systems. The European Union in June 2008 also listed Khatam as an entity linked to Iran’s proliferation-sensitive nuclear activities or Iran’s development of nuclear weapon delivery systems and ordered a freeze on its assets.
As reported in May, Khatam is also in charge of building a missile base in the Paraguaná Peninsula in Venezuela, about 75 miles from the Colombian border.
Green Experts of Iran also reported that Iran has set up a special organization called Mehr-Azad Energy to coordinate all financial transactions and technical procedures between Khatam-al-Anbia, Iranian officials and Russian companies. The office of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, sits at the top of the management hierarchy of the organization, which has secured its budget and full immunity from oversight through a secret agreement approved in the Majlis, the Iranian parliament.
Analysts are concerned that Russia is facilitating the Iranian nuclear goals despite U.S., U.N. and European Union fears about Iran’s nuclear enrichment and missile-delivery programs.
The U.N. nuclear agency last month expressed grave concern over Iran’s nuclear program, stating that there was credible evidence that Iran was working on nuclear weapons. The report said Iran had now accumulated more than four tons of low enriched uranium and over 70 kilograms — more than 150 pounds — of higher enriched material. Those two stockpiles give it enough enriched uranium to make up to six nuclear warheads.
Putin, who has been quoted by the Iranian media saying in his meeting in 2007 with Khamenei he saw the messiah in him, was key in helping with the work on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant. The reactor, once fully operational, is expected to be able to produce more than 661 pounds of near-weapons-grade plutonium, enough to make 60 nuclear bombs, within the first year or two.
Putin, announcing his intention to return to the Kremlin as Russia’s president after the election next March, has already shown his vision for the region: a nuclear-armed Iran as a means for the demise of America and its allies. Analysts believe the Islamic regime of Iran has a completely different view, one that will not benefit Russia either.
Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for an ex-CIA spy who requires anonymity for safety reasons. He is a senior fellow with EMPact America and the author of ”A Time to Betray,” a book about his double life as a CIA agent in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. “A Time to Betray” was the winner of the 2010 National Best Book Award, and the 2011 International Best Book Award.
