Dissident group claims Iran secretly running 'clandestine nuclear program' for years

A prominent Iranian dissident group has claimed that the Iranian dispensation has been lying to the U.N. nuclear inspectors for years and has been running a secret uranium enrichment operation at a facility buried deep beneath the ground in the northeast suburbs of Tehran since 2008.

According to the National Coalition of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the nuclear facility, called "Lavizan-3," has been used for "clandestine nuclear program research and development" as well as for enrichment with advanced IR-2m and IR-4 centrifuge machines. It asserted that the operation's existence has never been disclosed to the international community, reported The Washington Times.

The group said that the latest revelation was the outcome of a "decade-long, detailed, risking and complex" intelligence gathering efforts by members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), which is a main component of the NCRI, but has been under scrutiny in Washington because the State Department had listed it as a terrorist outfit until 2012.

The NCRI's claim could not be immediately verified.

Iran has consistently maintained that its nuclear program is for purely peaceful and civilian purposes.

However the P5+1 nations including, the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China, accuse Iran of building nuclear weapons. They want Tehran to curb its nuclear ambitions in return for the lifting of United Nations sanctions.