Alireza Jafrizadeh
Appearances
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
And that's why the regime is in a much weaker position. But what they want to do, they want to keep their nuclear weapons program at any cost. The negotiations give them something. It gives them the opportunity to avoid backlash, to avoid confrontation, to buy time in order to be able to run the clock.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
Why that clock is important to snap back all the previous UN Security Council resolutions and the sanctions that come with it, that will expire. So you have a very small window of opportunity for the US to enforce it on the regime and for the regime to escape it.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
So what they're doing, they're saying, okay, let's sit down and let's talk and just buying week by week of time and making it the other side to believe that the regime doesn't want to develop nuclear weapons. They're only interested in a peaceful nuclear energy. But the reality is that it's like been there, done that. This is the regime that said exactly the same thing
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
Actually, the JCPOA itself, as much flaws as it had in it, was all about supposedly the peaceful energy that they could only enrich uranium to 3.6%, 7%, and look what they're doing. They went way beyond their promising. They made a number of promises that they will not replace the centrifuges with the more advanced, more faster ones they did.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
They promised not to enrich uranium under the mountains. They did. They promised to comply with the IAEA inspections. They rejected that. So they say three strikes, you're out. I don't know how many strikes we're talking about right now when it comes to the Iranian regime. That's why the rules has to be different.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
When the president said that no enrichment, are there no circumstances, that should be the goal. And in order to have no enrichment, we're not talking about percentages, we're talking about shutting down all of those nuclear sites. That has been our position. That is the stated goal of the US administration. Various negotiators have talked about it, including
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
the president himself, including the Secretary of State, and including Mr. Mitkoff, but the regime is playing games. They just had an interview with somebody who was close to Khamenei, who says, oh, we can have a peaceful thing. We will make a promise of not developing nuclear weapons. I mean, this is the promise the regime made 20 some years ago, and they continue to violate it.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
Well, the alternative is that first of all, you definitely want to emphasize and keep your position that there should be no enrichment capability on the part of the Iranian regime and understand that the other side is weaker. This is not 2015, this is not 2003. And third, this regime, because they're so desperate,
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
The one thing that would really move them, the one thing that would get them more worried is their existential threat, the possibility to be overthrown. They're aware of it. They know the population is not on their side. They know, and I think the whole world would understand that the real ultimate resolution of this issue, which is ending the nuclear threat of Iran,
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
is ending the rule of the clinics, that's of course the responsibility of the people of Iran and the organized resistance. But that's also a leverage. Unless the mullahs feel that the outside world is not going to just look at the ruling Mullahs is the only partner in Iran. They will look at the people of Iran. They will look at the organized resistance.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
They will look at those who actually exposed these nuclear sites for years and decades. Those who are behind the uprisings in Iran, who are acting as engine for change. That's the real partner for the outside world, whether it's the United States or Europe. That's where you really need to invest. You need to open up. You need to explore that opportunity.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
You need to emphasize publicly that the people of Iran have the right to confront the revolutionary guards, have the right to overthrow the repressive rulers. That's when you get the Ayatollahs to comply and to act based on that. Otherwise, they will continue dragging this issue. Okay.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
Well, one thing I want to say is that they definitely need to stick to what they have said in the beginning. The stated goal is to prevent the Iran regime from obtaining nuclear weapons. And in order to achieve that, the enrichment program must be entirely shut down. It's very possible, it's very doable, only if you stick to it.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
And the second point is that who thought just a week before Assad went down just this past December in Syria, he seemed to be very invincible. He didn't have really those levels of uprisings in the preceding four or five years seemed to be quiet. And suddenly the whole thing went down because the balance of power in the region had shifted against the regime and against their proxies.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
And that's a new reality in Iran. There have been several rounds of uprisings in Iran. Of course, the regime tried to crush them, but every time they did it, it came back months later or a year later. only stronger, more focused on regime change, lasted longer, and people have totally given up on the ballot box in Iran.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
That's an explosive society you have in Iran, and the main foundation for those uprisings were actually the economic situation. And the economy in Iran is just totally in shambles. Things have gotten worse than two years ago when you had those major uprisings continuing. And then you have the organized resistance, organized opposition who want an end to the rule of the mullahs.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
And so that's where you want to really, the real ally are those people who have been revolting against the regime. That's where you want to count on. They're not asking for boots on the ground. They're not asking for even appropriation of money. All they're saying is just recognize our right to end the rule of the clerics.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
Well, this information came from the network inside Iran of the main Iranian opposition movement known as the MEK, which has a very large presence all over the country. They are very good in terms of the track record. This is the same movement that exposed the nuclear site in Natanz and Iraq in August of 2002, which triggered the IAEA inspections of Iranian nuclear sites for the first time.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
I don't know exactly what's really going on at the negotiating table. When I hear what the mullahs are saying, it's very obvious to me that they're just basically trying to keep the negotiations alive and also drag it because every day that passes, They have expired like one more day in order to get to the October deadline.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
But also they're avoiding any kind of major confrontation by the outside world against them. That's a plus for them. But there is a limit to that. And I think that needs to be understood that you cannot drag this issue forever. People, their patience is gonna run out. There is a deadline that the president of the United States has set. There is also a deadline at the US Security Council.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
And the exclusive situation in the country, people in Iran are aware of it. We're not a poor country. Iran has the second largest oil and gas reserves combined in the world, has a very educated population, a large population of 85 million, yet 80% of the people live below the poverty line. What's the problem? The money goes to the Revolutionary Guards, to the corruption, to the clerics.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
is spent on the nuclear weapons program. $2 trillion has been spent on the nuclear weapons program of the regime, which is twice as much as the cost of the eight years of Iran-Iraq war. So this is huge and people are aware of it. People are holding the regime accountable for the dilemma that they are facing. So the regime is not in a favorable situation at all. That needs to be exploited.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
That needs to be understood. by the United States and the rest of the world, this is a time that you need to stick with your position, push hard for it, you will get it.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
And then there were a host of other nuclear sites, experts, facilities, programs that this movement has exposed. The reason they're able to do it consistently is that they are all over the country. They are the movement for change in Iran. They have to monitor the activities of the Iranian regime, both for their own protection, but also in order to bring about change in the country.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
And that's why this new information came from their sources. It took a while for them to process it, to go over the details, making sure that everything that they're putting out is accurate. And that's why they were ready to release it. And that's when we had the press conference just last week here in Washington, releasing that information.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
Absolutely, they are proven to be credible over the past two, three decades. Interestingly, the information that released shows that the Iran regime has been working on building a new nuclear site that was unknown until we made the revelation.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
Now the organization behind building this site is a entity known as the CEPAND, S-P-N-D, which is the entity that is run by the Minister of Defense, controlled by the Revolutionary Guards. and their sole task is to develop nuclear weapons. This is the organization that is the new form, new shape of the original organization that was part of what they called Ahmad Plan.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
We exposed this organization back in July of 2011, and three years later, the State Department in 2014 designated this entity, and now everyone knows about it. Now, the structure of this facility was started back in 2009 and originated by, overseen by a person known as Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who is known also as the father of the Iran regime's nuclear weapons program.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
He was behind a lot of the other sites and he's the one that was assassinated in October 2020, actually not too far from this site. Now the site was completed by 2013 and has been operational ever since. There's three facilities, we had the details of those sites and we said that
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
this whole place is controlled by Saban, but also we showed how they place it a very unusual way, guarded and protected by radar system, by air defense system. And while in order to keep it secret, they portrayed this as a site that is related to a paint factory. I'm not aware of any paint factory that would have this level of hiding and camouflage.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
Well, first of all, the sites that were agreed to be monitored were all of them secret sites until most of them actually we revealed them. The site in Natanz, the heavy weather facility in Iraq, a number of other facilities that the IAEA was going and taking samples, inspecting, the regime kept them secret. So basically as part of the agreement was basically whatever they already knew.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
And they hid this site, but even the sites that we exposed that were primarily dealt with weaponization part of the program, not just enrichment that would give them the fissile material, but you need to turn that into a warhead, a weapon. And we, you know, exposed several of those sites that were never inspected,
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
by the IAEA because the regime said, this is a military site and military sites are off limits. You can only come to this civilian thing. And that was a huge flaw in the inspections regime that was put in place. We raised the flag at the time and you can see the outcome. But also, even the sites that they were enriching the regime went their own way.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
They shut down some of the monitoring cameras for the sites that the IAEA was inspecting. They even violated their commitment that, for instance, that they would limit the enrichment to 3.67%, which is supposedly the peaceful level. but they just went their own way and they reached way over 60%, which is just a screwdriver's turn away from getting the weapons grade material.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
Some of the sites that were underground, like in Fardo, near Cumb, under the mountains, they were supposed to feed no uranium hexafluid at all, but that's where they were enriching uranium to very high grade. So that's why, I mean, the whole monitoring system has major flaws especially in dealing with a regime that is built on deception, that is built on dragging and playing games with others.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
We also showed in our revelation that the regime had created a number of front companies to cover the whole thing. And one of these front companies, for instance, we showed that it's basically run by IRGC Brigadier Generals, all of whom are involved in the proliferation activities.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
And they were using this front company to go through the other front companies to get access, to get material, to get activities.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
The primary function, actually, they said on the surface that it's all about the oil and petrochemical facilities that are used to some chemical activities there. These are like benign looking things. But in fact, that's a new way, new camouflage to actually operate doing nuclear research, nuclear activities related to the development of nuclear warheads.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
The reason we know that what they're doing there is not what they're announcing or they're telling the locals is that CEPAND, which is the organization whose job only is to work on the nuclear weapons program, has been heavily involved. Just two days ago, the US government again designated
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
a number of experts that are associated with Sapant, specifically working on detonation, which is another aspect that we exposed back in December of 2024. So, there's a whole host of, activities, sites, and operations by the Iran regime that the IAEA cannot keep up with them. The way the whole thing is structured, is built, there's no way you can really actually monitor this whole situation.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
And that's why we're calling for the dismantlement of all of these sites, saying the entire nuclear program of the regime is all about the weapons. It has nothing to do with nuclear energy. Anything related to this must be shut down.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
Well, first of all, the two sides are coming to a negotiating table, even though the Iran regime has been there many times before, back in 2003, right after we had made the revelation about Natanz. At that time, it was the EU3, Britain, France, and Germany who were involved in the negotiations. with the Iranian regime.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
And then back in 2015, the negotiations that led to 2015, JCPOA, the US was part of a group of others, what they call five plus one, and now it's the US negotiating. But the difference is that, first of all, the regime is in a very weak position. This is not the same negotiating table as before. They have lost much of their clout in the region. Their biggest ally Assad is gone.
The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | May 17th, 2025: Iran’s Secret Weapons Lab Revealed & Russia’s Battlefield Recovery
Their militia groups, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the Shia militias in Iraq, and a whole host of others that have been badly shattered. The regime is facing a lot of opposition inside the country by the people, by the organized resistance, by the same movement that actually exposed these nuclear sites, the MEK, that they won't change.