Agence France Presse via Channel NewsAsia International reports that Iran intends to establish a secret nuclear faculty to train Iranian nuclear engineers.  According to a Western intelligence source and the Sunday Telegraph (London), the training will occur in one of the branches of an Iranian university such as Sharif University of Technology or the University of Tehran.  The source noted that,

The declared purpose for establishing the faculty is to create a source of skilled and professional manpower to promote Iran's military nuclear project, whose activity is increasing," the source told AFP.

"By setting up this installation, the Iranians are trying to make sure they have trained people whom the West doesn't even know about," the source said.

Meanwhile, Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN's largely ineffectual International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said,

...that the IAEA has not found weapons work in Iran after two years of investigations but that "the jury is still out" on whether the Islamic Republic's nuclear intentions are peaceful.

Of course, ElBaradei neglected to mention that the IAEA's inspection teams are now routinely denied access to Iran's most sensitive nuclear installations.  Naturally, the mullahs also want to conceal the nuclear engineering faculty and the university labs from IAEA visits.  Therefore, according to the source,

"... the faculty will be compartmentalised and undeclared.  It will not be under IAEA inspection."

God save us from the UN and the IAEA.

Hat tip to Dr. Mohamed Ibn Guadi of Strasbourg University

Doug Hanson   03—22—05