“According to the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] rules, a country… has to declare new facilities 180 days before any nuclear material is added,” said Prof. Pirouz Mojtahed-Zadeh from the University of Tehran.

Now, he went on, “at the stage that the Iranians say their new facility is, it is perhaps 180 months before” any nuclear materials will be used there.

Dr. Shmuel Gordon, former pilot for Israeli air force said he is “confident that Iran is working on atomic bomb.”

“They don’t need any nuclear energy, because they have a lot of sources of oil for the next 50 to 100 years,” he said.

So, he wondered, “Why should they invest so much money, so much of their resources into this project, instead of feeding hundreds of poor people in the streets of Tehran, Islamabad, and other places?”

Mojtahed-Zadeh, however, countered the claim, saying that even though Iran is one of the world’s largest oil producers, its “domestic energy consumption is at a level that Iran has to seek alternative sources for it.”

“Even the Americans suggested that Iran should go for alternative sources, especially nuclear energy,” he said.

As for sanctions against Iran, which seem more and more likely now, Israeli opponent Gordon said he doesn’t believe in them.

“The regime doesn’t care about the poverty and slavery of its people,” he stated.

According to Mojtahed-Zadeh, the US, Britain, France and Germany “will impose sanctions and other punitive measures on Iran”, whatever IAEA says.

“America is committed to the security, and to the existence and defense of Israel,” he said. Therefore, “the American president will have to find some excuses…to punish the state that Israel doesn’t like”.

“If Iran was to pack up its entire nuclear energy program today, the next excuse would be, “Why is Iran producing cars? If they don’t stop producing cars, we will attack Iran,” he said.