Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi (born c. 1961) is an Iranian officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and a Professor of physics at the Imam Hussein University, Tehran. Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi has been subject to a UN Security Council asset freeze and travel notification requirements because the Council says the IAEA has asked to interview Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi and Iran has refused to make him available.[1] With respect to Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi's work Iran has provided some information which the IAEA says "are not inconsistent with its findings", but the IAEA continues to seek corroboration of its findings.[2]

According to the UN designation, Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi is a senior Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics scientist and former head of the Physics Research Center (PHRC). The IAEA have asked to interview him about the activities of the PHRC over the period he was head, but he had refused.[3]

Project 111 / Iranian Nuclear Weaponization Program

Western intelligence charges he is or was the man in charge of Iran's nuclear programme, Project 111. Western powers assert Project 111 is or was an attempt to create a nuclear bomb for Iran, though Iran claims its program is solely for civilian purposes and that the information provided by Western intelligence agencies is fake or forged. According to the New York Times, Mr. Fakrizadeh is described in classified portions of American intelligence reports as deeply involved in an effort to design a nuclear warhead for Iran. The United States is reportedly keeping pressure on him.[4][5]

An internal 2007 Iranian document leaked to the Sunday Times identified Fakhrizadeh as the chairman of the Field for the Expansion of Deployment of Advanced Technology (FEDAT), the cover name for the organization running Iran's nuclear weapons programme. The document, entitled Outlook for special neutron-related activities over the next 4 years, lays out a four-year plan to develop a uranium deuteride neutron initiator.[6][7]

References

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