Iran builds underground command center
Sunday Telegraph reports country’s leaders built complex of rooms, offices designed to serve as bolt hole, headquarters for rulers as military tensions mount; construction of complex part of regime's plan to move more of its operations beneath ground, report says
Iran's leaders have built a secret underground emergency command center in Teheran as they prepare for a confrontation with the West over their nuclear program, the London-based Sunday Telegraph reported on Sunday.
The complex of rooms and offices beneath the Abbas Abad district in the north of the capital is designed to serve as a bolt hole and headquarters for the country's rulers as military tensions mount, the report said.
According to the Sunday Telegraph the recently completed command centre is connected by tunnels to other government compounds near the Mossala prayer ground, one of the city's most important religious sites.
Offices of the state security forces, the energy department and the Organization of Islamic Culture and Communications are all located in the same area.
The Sunday Telegraph said the construction of the complex is part of the regime's plan to move more of its operations beneath ground. The Revolutionary Guard has overseen the development of subterranean chambers and tunnels - some more than half a mile long and an estimated 35ft high and wide - at sites across the country for research and development work on nuclear and rocket programs.
The opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) learnt about the complex from its contacts within the regime. The same network revealed in 2002 that Iran had been operating a secret nuclear program for 18 years.
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council considered proposals including demands for Iran to stop building a heavy-water nuclear reactor, freeze uranium enrichment and fulfill its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Oil as a weapon?
Tehran said recently that it had no intention of manipulating its oil exports as a weapon in the conflict over its nuclear program, but said that should the situation change, it may consider doing so.
“We’re not interested in using oil as a weapon, but if the conditions change, this could influence our decision,” head of Iran’s National Security Council Ali Larijani said.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last Thursday that Western countries were vulnerable and would suffer more than Iran if they continued to try to impede its attempts to develop nuclear technology.
"They (Western countries) know that they are not capable of inflicting the slightest blow on the Iranian nation because they need the Iranian nation," the semi-official ISNA students news agency quoted him as saying in a speech in western Iran.
"They will suffer more and they are vulnerable," he said.
On Wednesday a senior Iranian security official warned Iran could inflict "harm and pain" to match whatever punishment Washington persuaded the Security Council to mete out for Iran's refusal to heed calls that it halt atomic fuel research.
