Soona Samsani, the U.S. representative for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said that despite international pressure Tehran has continued its drive to acquire nuclear weapons and is constructing two new uranium enrichment plants.
Both the plants are located in the northern Iranian villages of Lashkar-Abad and Ramandeh, about 40 kilometers (24 miles) west of the capital, Tehran. They are about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from each other.
"Both have been under the direct supervision of Reza Aghazadeh, the director-general of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization," Samsani told a news briefing in Washington.
Last August, the council made headlines when it revealed the existence of two secret Iranian nuclear facilities in Natanz and Arak. The claim was initially dismissed as unauthentic but later U.S. and other governments also acknowledged the existence of these plants.
The U.S. government, however, refuses to deal with the council because it is controlled by an Iraq-based group, the People's Mujahedin, which the State Department regards as a terrorist organization.
The council also presented a written report about the two new plants, along with a map detailing their location and other information.
The Lashkar-Abad plant was being built inside a sprawling grove known to local residents as a "presidential orchard." It contains several buildings housing uranium enrichment centrifuges and has a surface area of 80 hectares (31 square miles).
So far some 4,000 to 5,000 square meters (10 to 12 acres) are under construction. A wall has been built around the complex to hide it from the passersby.
In a hall, which measures 50 meters by 30 meters (55 yards by 33 yards), several centrifuge machines have been installed for testing.
The hall is similar to the laboratory Iran has built at another location called Natanz that has 1,000 centrifuge machines. The new plant, however, is smaller and has fewer machines.
The nearby Ramandeh enrichment site is hidden inside several local warehouses.
Both the sites, the council said, work as substations for the main site in Natanz in nuclear enrichment process.
They can also be used as substitutes for Natanz in case of military strikes or any interruption in its operations.
The group produced several maps of the area and provided the address of the Noor-Afza-Gostar Company allegedly running the plants. But it offered no photographs or other visual evidence to prove its claim.
The council also issued a list of front companies that work for the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization. They included Hasteh, Kavoshyar, Energy Novin, Novin Puneh, Mesbah Energy, Kala Electric, Tavan Gostaar and Noor-Afza-Gostar.
Another council representative, Alireza Jafarzadeh, said Iran had purchased the centrifuge technology from other countries while also had built some of it at home. He did not name the countries Iran had acquired this technology from but said it was a known fact that Iran was getting external support for its nuclear program.
The group also urged the Bush administration to over throw the regime in Tehran if it wants peace in the Middle East, and offered to help bring about such a regime change.
The offer came hours after the White House said it would continue to bring pressure on Tehran to stop supporting al-Qaida.
"Iran has the most sophisticated terrorist regime in the region," Jafarzadeh told the briefing. "It is time for the U.S. policy to be decisive and firm against the Iranian regime, if it wants peace in the region."
The council officials did not call for a direct U.S. military action against Iran but said the new U.S. policy should recognize the right of the Iranian people to resist and overthrow the repressive regime.
Jaferzadeh said the "appeasement" policy of the Clinton administration could not prevent the regime from making weapons of mass destruction. The Iranian regime, he said, already has chemical and biological weapons and is close to acquiring nuclear weapons as well.
"The appeasement policy did not work because there are no moderates in the regime to be appeased," he said.
Iranian government officials strongly deny the allegation that they are making nuclear weapons, saying that their program is strictly for peaceful purposes.
They also deny sheltering members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.
President Bush has dubbed Iran part of an "axis of evil" and accused the regime in Tehran of sponsoring terrorism and developing nuclear arms.
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