On the outskirts of the desert, in the northeastern province of Khorasan, is an aluminum production complex that the government cheered publicly as an essential part of its efforts to increase production of this mineral.
However, this site, not far from the city of "Jagarm", also includes a secret facility set up by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that produces aluminum powder for use in Iran's missile program, according to a former Iranian government official and supported by documents seen by Reuters.
Aluminum powder is extracted from "bauxite" and is a major component in the manufacture of solid propellant methods for launching missiles.
The former official, Amir Moghaddam, said that Iran began producing the powder for military use more than five years ago.
Moghaddam was Head of Public Relations and Parliamentary Affairs Delegate at the Office of the Vice President for Executive Affairs, an office that at that time supervised some economic policies.
He said he visited the unknown facility twice and that production was continuing when he left Iran for France in 2018.
And production of aluminum powder has begun in Iran for use in missiles, something that has not been published before, in light of international sanctions aimed at preventing Iranian efforts to obtain advanced technology to manufacture weapons.
10 documents.
Reuters reviewed more than a dozen documents related to the aluminum powder project and its stakeholders on various dates from 2011 to 2018.
One of these documents is a letter to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, from a leader of the Revolutionary Guards.
The officer who sent the message is Muhammad Tahrani Moghaddam, who described the Iranian state as his father, the father of Iran's missile program.
In the letter, Muhammad Tahrani described the presenter of the "Jagarm" facility as "a project to produce missile fuel from metallic powder," and said it plays a major role in "improving the country's ability to be self-sufficient in producing solid fuel for missiles."
The letter does not have a date, but it appears from references in it to events that date back to 2017.
But the spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York, Ali Reza Mir Yousfi, denied all these leaks, and said, "We have no information about these allegations, nor about the authenticity of the documents."
"We reaffirm that Iran has no intention of producing warheads or nuclear missiles," he added.
Iran has long insisted that its missile program is for defense purposes only.
Reuters reported that it asked questions about this secret facility of the Revolutionary Guards and Ali Khamenei's office, but received no response.
What Amir Muqaddam revealed to the aluminum powder program is likely to increase Washington's scrutiny of Iran's missile production efforts.
The former Iranian official, who now lives in France, said he left Iran in 2018 after he was accused of stirring unrest in the wake of public statements he made about the corruption of some government officials.
He added that he wanted to expose the program, because he believed that Iran's missile ambitions are not in the interest of the Iranian people.
Missile Propulsion
This clandestine project would give Iran greater control over the chain and quality of supplies related to missile propulsion, according to Michael Elman, director of the Nuclear Nonproliferation and Policy Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington.
According to the documents related to the aluminum powder program seen by Reuters, "Iran Alumina" will manage the Jagarm facility.
The Iran Alumina company website says it operates a bauxite mine and an aluminum production facility in a complex located approximately ten kilometers northeast of Jagarm.
Aluminum powder is used in a wide variety of products, from paint and electronics to solar panels and fireworks.
Because of its explosive properties, aluminum powder is also a major component of solid fuel propulsion methods used in launching rockets. When the powder is mixed with a substance containing oxygen, an enormous amount of energy is released.
In 2010, the British government added "Iran Alumina" to the list of Iranian entities that it believes may use goods purchased for military purposes or for weapons of mass destruction.
According to Amir Moghaddam, according to two documents clarified by what Reuters saw, work was being done by 2011 on preparing the Jagarm facility.
One of the documents was a letter in October 2011 sent by the company’s managing director, Majeed Qasemi Fayez Abadi, to Major-General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, who was then head of the Revolutionary Guards missile program.
The letter stated that, on the orders of Major General, they had reached a location suitable for the project near a "deserted airport" near the city of Jagarm.
Fayez Abadi has requested $ 18 million in funding from Iran's sovereign wealth fund to build the factory.
Some of the documents seen by Reuters relate to interventions by Revolutionary Guards and Iranian officials with the judicial authorities on behalf of Fayez Abadi explaining the secret project and its role in it.
Fayez Abadi was arrested in Iran in 2015 on charges of corruption in connection with financial dealings linked to Iran Alumina, according to the documents.
Amir Moghaddam said that the authorities later released Fayez Abadi without charge.