| Part ofa series on the |
| Nuclear program of Iran |
|---|
 |
| Timeline |
| Facilities |
| Organizations |
| International agreements |
| Domestic laws |
| Individuals |
| Related |
AMAD Project (orAMAD Plan,Persian:پروژه آماد) is an alleged Iranian scientific project with the aim of developing nuclear weapons. It began in 1989, ended in 2003 according to theInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but elements are alleged byIsrael to have continued nonetheless.[1][2][3] Iran has denied the existence of any program aimed at the development of a nuclear explosive device, and in particular denied the existence of the AMAD Plan when reporting additional details to the IAEA in 2015.[4]
Starting in 2005, the IAEA gathered information from its member states indicating that in the late 1980s Iran had launched a plan aimed at the development of a nuclear explosive device. This information indicated that these activities started within Departments of the Physics Research Centre (PHRC), and by the early 2000s came to be focused on projects of the AMAD Plan under the leadership ofMohsen Fakhrizadeh.[4] According to the IAEA, the programme gathered several projects aiming at designing and integrating nuclear payloads (projects 110 and 111), manufacturing explosive components (project 3), and enriching uranium (project 4).[5]
The same information indicated that "activities under the AMAD Plan were brought to a halt in late 2003 and that the work was fully recorded, equipment and work places were either cleaned or disposed of so that there would be little to identify the sensitive nature of the work that had been undertaken."[4][5]
In August 2015, under the roadmap, Iran provided the IAEA with additional details and denied the existence of any program aimed at the development of a nuclear explosive device, and in particular denied the existence of the AMAD Plan.[4]
In a 2015 report namedFinal Assessment on Past and Present Outstanding Issues regarding Iran’s Nuclear Programme, the IAEA assessed that:
On 31 January 2018, IsraeliMossad agentsinfiltrated a secret warehouse in southern Tehran, and pilfered 100,000 documents, including paper records and computer files, documenting the nuclear weapons work of the AMAD Project between 1999 and 2003.[6][7]
On 30 April, Israeli prime ministerBenjamin Netanyahu presented the operation's trove to the public. According to Netanyahu, the documents proved Iran had lied to the international community about its plans, with the goal of the AMAD Project to design, produce and test five warheads, each with tenkiloton yield for integration on a missile.[8][9][10] Iranian foreign ministerJavad Zarif tweeted to say the evidence was a "rehash of old allegations" which had already been dealt with by the IAEA.[8]
According toDavid Albright of theInstitute for Science and International Security, the archive indicated that Iran's weapon program was more advanced than believed previously in the West and that should Iran pull out of theJoint Comprehensive Plan of Action it would be able to produce weapons swiftly, possibly within a few months.[11] According to journalistYonah Jeremy Bob and nuclear expertJeffrey Lewis, much of the key contents were already reported in past IAEA reports. However, the trove provided more clarity about Iran's specific goals for its arsenal.[12]
