| Now you can glow in the dark whilst skate-boarding at Iran's newest airport! Follow-up and more detail on a story we covered before. |
Western intelligence officials believe Iran's Revolutionary Guards tried to cover up a nuclear accident triggered when weapons-grade uranium was being shipped from North Korea. The accident allegedly caused Tehran's new international airport to be sealed off by Revolutionary Guard commanders within hours of its official opening on May 9.
The first scheduled commercial landing at the airport - an Iran Air civilian flight from Dubai - was intercepted by two Iranian air force jets and diverted to Isfahan, about 300 kilometres away, even though it was low on fuel. At the same time, trucks blocked the runway to prevent other landings.
Seven weeks later, the showpiece airport, named after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Iranian revolution, is still closed. All commercial flights have to use the capital's ageing Mehrabad complex.
At the time of the incident, Revolutionary Guard commanders claimed that Khomeini airport had been closed because of "security problems". But Iranian aviation officials believe that Tehran wanted to cover up evidence of the previously unreported nuclear accident in 2002, linked to Iran's secret program to build an atom bomb. Although the airport, 75 kilometres south of Tehran, was not ready for commercial traffic until this spring, military flights have used it for at least two years. In December 2002, according to officials with access to the airport, a North Korean cargo jet delivering nuclear technology, including some weapons-grade uranium, was being unloaded at night under military supervision.
| Too bad the jet didn't encounter unexpected turbulence. |
A container slipped and cracked on the tarmac, and everyone in the area was taken away for thorough medical examinations. Crews from the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, wearing protective suits, were brought in to clean up the spillage.
The airport will remain closed until Russian nuclear experts can examine the site of the incident. The scientists worked there for several days, staying indoors during daylight and working only in darkness.
| Clearly Iran has dealt with the vampire problem. |
Once the area was decontaminated, Revolutionary Guards allowed airport construction to resume, confident that they had concealed the incident from the outside world. But things changed after inspectors working for the UN-backed International Atomic Energy Agency uncovered evidence in June 2003 that Iran had secretly enriched uranium to weapons grade at the Kalaye electric centrifuge plant, on the outskirts of Tehran. Iran had previously denied having the necessary technology.
A senior Western intelligence official said: "We are aware of the concerns being expressed by Iranian aviation experts, and are trying to investigate them. The problem is that the Revolutionary Guards will not allow access to the airport to any foreign nationals, including UN inspectors." |