{"id":313447,"date":"2025-08-10T07:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T07:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=313447"},"modified":"2025-08-11T07:26:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T07:26:13","slug":"iran-sends-surviving-nuclear-scientists-into-hiding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=313447","title":{"rendered":"Iran sends surviving nuclear scientists into hiding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melanie Swan \u2013 The Telegraph Aug 9, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Iran has sent its\u00a0surviving nuclear scientists<\/a>\u00a0into deep hiding after Israel killed more than 30 researchers,\u00a0The Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0can reveal.<\/p>\n

Most are no longer living in their homes or teaching at universities, and have been moved to secure locations in Tehran or northern coastal cities, where they live in villas with their families, a senior Iranian official said.<\/p>\n

The Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0has been shown the names of more than 15 of these surviving scientists, on a list of about 100 held by Israel, whom the Israelis say must now decide whether to continue their work and risk further strikes or find a new career.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of them are no longer living in their houses \u2013 they are either moved to safe houses in Tehran or to the north,\u201d the Iranian official said.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThose who were teaching at universities are replaced with people who have no connection with the nuclear programme.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move comes amid concern, fuelled by Israeli briefings, that further assassinations are in the offing and the\u00a0execution<\/a>, by Iran, of one of its own nuclear scientists this week.<\/p>\n

Roozbeh Vadi<\/a>\u00a0had worked at one of the country\u2019s most sensitive and important nuclear sites and was hanged on Wednesday over allegations he had facilitated the assassination of his colleagues during the\u00a012-day war in June<\/a>\u00a0by passing information to Israel.<\/p>\n

Israeli experts say a\u00a0new generation of Iranian nuclear scientists<\/a>\u00a0now stand poised to take over the work of those already killed and have described them as \u201cdead men walking\u201d, despite the increased security that includes safe houses and round-the-clock protection.<\/p>\n

They say Iran structured its nuclear research programme with each key player having at least one deputy, working in pods of two to three to ensure redundancy in case of attack.<\/p>\n

Israeli sources fear some of the surviving scientists have replaced their dead colleagues at Iran\u2019s nuclear weaponisation programme at the Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research, known by its Persian acronym, SPND. They are said to include scientists with expertise in explosives, neutron physics and warhead design.<\/p>\n

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Shahab-3 launch.Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Israeli intelligence and defence analyst, Ronen Solomon, told\u00a0The Telegraph<\/em>: \u201cThe figures who remain have worked on adapting Shahab-3 missiles for nuclear warheads, and are critical to Iran\u2019s ability to deploy nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWhile the eliminated scientists focused more on warhead design, the expertise in delivery systems makes those who remain equally strategic targets for Israel, as Israel\u2019s June 2025 strikes also targeted ballistic missile infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Israeli intelligence, the knowledge that drives Iran\u2019s nuclear programme is deeply embedded in the country\u2019s universities and academic systems, leading to strikes last month on Shahid Beheshti University and Imam Hossein University, both in Tehran and both associated with Iran\u2019s military and nuclear programmes.<\/p>\n

Iran has always denied running a nuclear weapons programme, claiming that its nuclear capabilities and expertise was for civilian use only.<\/p>\n

Much like Israel\u2019s own nuclear programme, which relied heavily on research conducted at sites including the Weizmann Institute of Science (itself targeted by Iran in June), Iran\u2019s nuclear programme is broad-based on the academic side with much of the work having dual application<\/p>\n

Danny Citrinowicz, the former head of the Iranian strategic desk in Israeli Defense Intelligence, a branch of the Israeli military, said the remaining Iranian experts faced a clear choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey saw what happened to their colleagues, and as we learned from 2010 when we eliminated the other scientists, it\u2019s not changing their way of thinking in terms of their willingness to support the regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who are left will be at the forefront of any Iranian attempt to reach a nuclear bomb, hence they will automatically become targets for Israel as Israel has shown in the past. I have no doubt about it. Any scientist that deals with the nuclear issue will be eliminated or will be threatened with elimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran has raced to restructure its protection arrangements for scientists since the\u00a0June war<\/a>\u00a0with Israel, in which the\u00a0US attacked Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities<\/a>\u00a0with bunker bombs and Tehran hit back with\u00a0missile attacks on Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Previously, a single Revolutionary Guard unit handled their security, but multiple agencies now coordinate protection due to trust concerns, the Iranian official told\u00a0The Telegraph<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were all asked if they still trust their bodyguards \u2013 some said no and were provided with new ones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The killings in June prompted widespread calls in Iran for increased protection of surviving scientists and their families \u2013 and calls to reverse officially stated policy and pursue a nuclear bomb.<\/p>\n

The brother of an Iranian scientist killed in Israeli strikes called for Iran to revise its nuclear doctrine to better protect its scientists.<\/p>\n

Seyed Alireza Sadighi Saber, speaking at a funeral for victims of Israel\u2019s June attacks, said Iran should withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and reconsider its nuclear weapons taboo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Iran had the will to build nuclear weapons, it would certainly have achieved it within two years, but because the peaceful path was chosen, the enemy began successive assassinations of scientists, commanders and elites to stop scientific progress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese individuals had no military activities and their scientific projects were completely under IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] supervision and within the framework of peaceful nuclear programmes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He called on Supreme Leader\u00a0Ali Khamenei<\/a>\u00a0and others to urgently revise policies for protecting the country\u2019s scientists and researchers, saying it was time to move beyond slogans of \u201cDeath to America and Israel\u201d and make fundamental decisions.<\/p>\n

His brother, university faculty member Mohammad Reza Sadighi Saber, was killed along with his family in the Israeli strikes.<\/p>\n

The victims included his daughter Fateme, 19, son Hamidreza, 17, and eight-year-old daughter Mohia.<\/p>\n

Several prominent scientists and researchers, many specialising in nuclear physics and radiopharmaceuticals, were also killed in Israel\u2019s June 13 attacks.<\/p>\n

Amir Hossein Faghi emerged as one of Iran\u2019s leading figures in radiopharmaceutical development.<\/p>\n

Faghi led research into medical applications of nuclear energy and appeared on state television in 2022 discussing radiopharmaceuticals for cancer treatment.<\/p>\n

Colleagues compared his work to assassinated nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari, killed in 2010.<\/p>\n

The strikes targeted Iran\u2019s academic and scientific infrastructure, degrading expertise built over decades in nuclear physics, radiopharmaceuticals, and related fields.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israel’s murder of a string of Iranain nuclear scientists has led to tightened security around more than one hundred prominent survivors. The killings have also prompted calls for the Ayatollah to reconsider his prohibition on the development of nuclear weapons <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":35596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Iran","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=313447"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313453,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313447\/revisions\/313453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=313447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=313447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=313447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}