Iran film details ‘covert war’ against its nuke program

An Iranian documentary film, published by the country’s official media channel Press TV on Sunday, purports to reveal how foreign states, and in particular the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, have allegedly conspired to confound the country’s nuclear program, according to officials interviewed in the production.

Titled “The Covert War on Iran,” the 50-minute long video posted on the Press TV website has English subtitles and includes interviews with men who say they were duped into spying on behalf of Israel. A full English transcript of the documentary was also provided by Press TV.

Various officials feature in the film, including the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi and Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi.

Alavi asserts that there is “lots of proof, evidence, even documents, physical documents even” of covert attempts to sabotage the nuclear program.

“The espionage agencies, especially the Zionist Regime’s espionage agency (Mossad) is like the devil,” Alavi says. “If you throw it out the door it’ll sneak in through the window. If you’re not careful for one second, it will start its sabotage and espionage attempts again.”

Aside from physical damage, persistent cyber-offensives target the Iranian program, the documentary asserts.

“Since late March 2014, we’ve encountered over 20 different types of malware that tried to enter the industry; with the purpose of collecting information and also with the purpose of creating defects,” says Ali Asghar Zarean, AEOI Deputy Head for Security for Iran’s nuclear program. “But with the measures we’ve taken including UTM [unified threat management], firewall, closing ports and so on, nothing has happened.”

The Iranians also claim that foreign intelligence services, primarily the Mossad, have sought to recruit citizens of the country into their services, without them realizing for whom they were really working.

Two men, one identified only as Amir and the other as Hossein Kazem Darvish, tell stories of their alleged enlistment.

Amir claims that a fellow traveler he met while on holiday in Thailand convinced him to follow and photograph a man in Iran that he said was a business associate who had stolen some money. However, the target was in fact a top Iranian scientist.

Darvish tells how he applied to join an international bodyguard organization but his rigorous and furtive training led him towards spying on his own country.

Despite all the espionage efforts, the Iranian officials claim that the nuclear program has not suffered any major setbacks.

“Since 2009, not only has our nuclear industry not been suspended, or gotten slower; it has even gotten faster. Within this time span, some 20,000 centrifuges were built,” says nuclear chief Salehi. “Right now, 10,000 centrifuges are working. And we have another 10,000 centrifuges installed.”

The release of the documentary came as Western powers were making a last ditch attempt to hammer out an agreement with Iran over its controversial nuclear program during negotiations in Vienna, ahead of Monday’s November 24 deadline.

The so-called P5+1 — permanent UN Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany — has been locked in talks with Iran since February to turn the interim Geneva accord into a lasting agreement.

Such a deal is aimed at easing fears that Tehran could develop nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian activities. The Islamic republic denies it wants to build an atomic bomb and insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

AP contributed to this report.