Iran builds secret command centre, says report

Sify.com:

Sunday, 12 March , 2006

London: Iran has built a secret underground emergency command centre in the capital Tehran as its leaders prepare for a confrontation with the West over its controversial nuclear programme, a media report claimed in London on Sunday.

The complex of rooms and offices beneath the Abbas Abad district in the north of Tehran is designed to serve as a bolthole and headquarters for the country?s rulers as military tensions mount, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

It claimed that the recently completed command centre is connected by tunnels to other government compounds near the Mossala prayer ground, one of the city?s most important religious sites.

Offices of the state security forces, the Energy Department and the Organisation of Islamic Culture and Communications are all located in the same area.

The construction of the complex is part of the regimes plan to move more of its operations beneath ground, the report said, adding the Revolutionary Guard has overseen the development of subterranean chambers and tunnels ? some more than half a mile long and an estimated 35-ft high and wide - at sites across the country for research and development work on nuclear and rocket programmes.

According to the report, the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) learnt about the complex from its contacts within the regime. The same network revealed in 2002 that Iran had been operating a secret nuclear programme for 18 years.