Iran Redline

In our last post , we revealed documents showing that in 2016, SPND used the IAP as a nom-de-plume to sign a memorandum of cooperation with Iran's oldest and most prestigious private university, the Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch ( دانشگاه آزاد واحد تهران مرکزی ). There is a lot of evidence in there that the SPND is behind it. Let’s take a closer look: First, the document is signed by Dr Rouhollah Ghaderi ( روح الله قادری ), who is described in the document as the head of the IAP. Here is Ghaderi's signature below on the contract, using a shortened version of his first name: We know from authoritative sources that Dr Rouhollah Ghaderi (national ID 4579489705) is a long-time, senior official of SPND. In March 2019, the US Treasury put Dr Ghaderi under sanctions for directing SPND's Shahid Fakhr Moghadam Group ( گروه شهید فخار مقدم ), one of SPND's main research entities. Shahid Fakhr Moghadam has built explosion simulators and radiatio

When we recently saw that SPND had stuck an IAP sticker on one of their projects, we thought it was a bit of a joke. Surely, we thought, SPND wouldn't be so stupid as to revive the brand name of the IAP - an acronym standing for the Institute of Applied Physics ( انستیتو فیزیک کاربردی ) - when that so-called institute had long been outed as a front organization for Iran's pre-2003 nuclear weapons program. As it turns out, SPND is stupider than we thought. The IAP is back! Indeed, our research reveals that SPND has revived the IAP brand, and has been using it for at least the past three years. And, most disturbingly, that SPND has used the cover of the IAP to infiltrate Iran's biggest civilian university, Islamic Azad. We've uncovered previously undisclosed documents that show that in 2016, SPND used the IAP as a nom-de-plume to sign a memorandum of cooperation with Iran's oldest and most prestigious private university, the Islamic Azad University Ce

The public revelation of Iran's atomic archives continues to cause ripples, with the United States Treasury the latest government authority to delve into the documents pinched from under the nose of Iran's intelligence agencies. On 22 March, the Treasury released an extensive list ( here and here ) of sanctions designations targeted directly at SPND ( سازمان پژوهش ‌ های نوین دفاعی ), the Iranian military research organisation responsible for curating (and losing) the extensive records of Iran's pre-2003 nuclear weapons programme.  This news must have been a real blow to scientists and other staff working at SPND, many of whom are already upset by stressful working conditions under Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Now they will find their freedom to travel, to publish and to speak academically, as well as their future work prospects,(even more) severely limited. These sanctions basically mean that SPND and its employees can forget about ever getting a bank account with anyth