London, Jan. 30: Iran has formed a top secret team of nuclear specialists to infiltrate the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, the UN-sponsored body that monitors its nuclear programme, The Daily Telegraph has been told.

Its target is the IAEA’s safeguards division and its aim is to obtain information on the work of IAEA inspectors so that Iran can conceal the more sensitive areas of its nuclear research. The operation to target the IAEA is being run by Hosein Afarideh, the former head of the Iranian parliament’s energy committee.

Western intelligence officials believe that Iran, which is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is taking advantage of its access to the IAEA to spy on its inspection procedures so that they can conceal sensitive areas of their nuclear operations from the outside world.