The Iranian regime has “intensified” the weaponisation aspect of its nuclear project and is moving towards building an atomic bomb at a “rapid pace”, experts have warned.

It has long been known that Iran is accumulating enriched uranium at near-weapons grade purity, sufficient for producing fissile material for a bomb, but new findings point to advancements in the critical process of weaponisation — the regime’s capability to detonate a nuclear weapon.

The alarm was sounded by the Washington Office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an opposition group which seeks to overthrow the country’s government, based on intelligence it has derived sources embedded in the Iranian regime.

According to findings presented by the NCRI at a press conference in Washington D.C. on Thursday, the regime's covert activities have intensified at least at two sites, where research, manufacturing and explosive testing has been detected in relation to nuclear detonation, including but not limited to exploding-bridgewire (EBW) detonators.

The evidence points towards an acceleration in the regime's weaponisation capability, signifying a critical step in its ability to build nuclear warheads.

Soona Samsami, the representative of the NCRI in the US, said: “While global attention remains focused on uranium enrichment levels needed to produce fissile material for a bomb, and while the world is concerned about the quantitative and qualitative expansion of uranium enrichment by the Iranian regime, the actual bomb-making has not been addressed.

“The Iranian regime is covertly working on the weaponisation aspect of its nuclear project to build a warhead, effectively obstructing verification through deceit.”

Leading Iran’s weaponisation capability is an organisation the NCRI has dubbed METFAZ — the Farsi acronym for the Center for Research and Expansion of Technologies on Explosions and Impact — a key department in Iran’s bomb-making organisation, the Organization for Advanced Defense Research (SPND).

The NCRI has detected increased METFAZ activity at a previously deactivated nuclear site in Sanjarian, roughly 25 miles east of Tehran — a location once central to Iran’s nuclear programme under the Amad Plan in the early 2000s.

New imagery of Sanjarian in 2024; newly named Meshkat complex. (Image provided by the NCRI)

Sanjarian in 2017 when NCRI announced that its activities have moved to Plan 6 in Parchin. (Image provided by the NCRI)

Intelligence indicates that METFAZ has been covertly using the site at Sanjarian as a central research hub for nuclear detonation technologies since April 2024, by disguising its activities under the cover of the “Arvin Kimia Abzaar" company.

The company claims to be affiliated with the oil and gas industry, but the NCRI argues that this is a cover, with the company actually having close ties to the Ministry of Defense and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

“Our intelligence, and in particular its key personnel, shows that the company is entirely under the control of the regime's leading experts in the field of nuclear weapons, namely explosions,” said the NCRI.

The NCRI said one of the key executives at Arvin Kimia Abzaar is Saeed Borji, who has been a member of the IRGC since 1980 and who received training in the manufacture of detonators and research using explosive chambers from the nuclear scientist Vyacheslav V. Danilenko around 2000.

The site where the company operates, known as the Meshkat Complex, is under strict security. People in the nearby village of Sanjarian, which is under military control and located a few hundred meters away, are prohibited from entering the side road which leads to the complex.

The NCRI suspects that the site is being used for renewed research on EBW detonators, initially developed in the Manhattan Project. An EBW detonator is a short, small-diameter wire welded between two ends that can be used to detonate a nuclear device.

Intelligence indicates that METFAZ has in recent months been expanding its facilities inside Plan 6 of the Parchin site, some 30 miles southeast of Tehran. Plan 6 is a site of nuclear production for explosive testing. Satellite imagery obtained by the NCRI shows the expansion of the site with new structures, indicating an intensification in the regime’s weaponisation capability.

2024 Satellite Imagery of Plan Area 6 with New Structures. (Image provided by the NCRI)

2024 Satellite Imagery of Plan Area 6 with New Structures. (Image provided by the NCRI)

In addition to building the EBW, METFAZ and its key experts, such as Borji, are involved in the construction of other parts necessary for nuclear weapons, according to the NCRI. The organisation has other facilities in other parts of Iran, including using the Semnan site in the north of the country, to conduct its explosive tests.

The NCRI is calling on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to immediately step in and inspect the sites where it suspects covert activities which advance the regime’s nuclear programme are taking place.

“The regime demonstrates the lowest level of transparency in building a nuclear bomb (compared to other aspects of its nuclear program) and is rapidly advancing toward bomb production. It is absolutely essential for the IAEA to immediately visit this site and conduct a thorough inspection,” said Samsami.

It is also calling for the regime's nuclear dossier to be immediately referred to the United Nations Security Council, and for all sanctions related to the regime to be reinstated by activating the snapback mechanism.

The NCRI said the Iranian regime has been severely weakened since the 2022 uprising and the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. The regional balance of power has shifted dramatically against Ali Khamenei, spurring his nuclear project on. The only solution, argues Samsami, is for the regime to be overthrown, before it becomes too powerful.

“In such dire circumstances, the regime is likely to invest significantly more energy and resources in building a nuclear bomb, as confirmed by intelligence obtained by the Iranian Resistance.

“The only long-term solution to prevent the world’s most dangerous regime from obtaining the world’s most dangerous weapon is its overthrow by the people and the organised Resistance – a goal that is more attainable now than ever before.”