Newsweek:

A group of Iranian dissidents has unveiled what it alleges to be a secret nuclear site dedicated to developing a weapon of mass destruction in Iran ahead of a new set of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran.

Speaking at a press conference organized Thursday at its Washington, D.C., office, representatives of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) claimed that the Iranian Defense Ministry's Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research was covertly pursuing nuclear weapons-related research at a location known as the "Rainbow Site" in the Ivanaki area of the north-central province of Semnan.

The site, claimed to be operating under the guise of a paint factory overseen by the Diba Energy Siba company, was said to be involved in the production of a nuclear warhead, specifically for a hydrogen bomb, based on sources linked to MeK.

The goal, according to Alireza Jafarzadeh, spokesperson for the People's Mojahedin of Iran, also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MeK or MKO), is to persuade President Donald Trump to demand the total dismantlement of Iran's nuclear program in order to create an existential threat to the Islamic Republic.

"The nuclear program of the regime is a tool for their survival, if they accept to abandon their nuclear weapons program, that would clearly be a huge weakness of the regime," Jafarzadeh told Newsweek.

"It will have a big impact within the regime as the population, which is already saying, 'How in the world did we spend $2 trillion for nothing, of our wealth, of our money,' would have more reason to want to overthrow this regime than they already had."

The Iranian Mission to the United Nations rejected the allegations, along with the group's credibility, in a statement shared with Newsweek and published on X, formerly Twitter.

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