The Times: Zimbabwe Agrees to Sell Uranium to Iran
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Zimbabwe has signed a secret deal to supply Iran with the raw materials needed to develop a nuclear weapon, in breach of international sanctions, The Times reported on Saturday.
"I have seen [a memorandum of understanding] to export uranium to the Iranians," Zimbabwean Deputy Mining Minister Gift Chimanikire told the British newspaper.
The agreement, which was reportedly signed last year, is likely to cause alarm in Western capitals.
The United States and the European Union have imposed crippling sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for peaceful energy uses but which they fear is intended to build a bomb.
Zimbabwe is also subject to international sanctions over its human rights record and conduct of elections.
President Robert Mugabe, who won another five-year term in disputed polls last month, has publicly backed Iran's nuclear drive.
During a visit by Iran's then president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Harare in April 2010, Mugabe said his guest should be assured of "Zimbabwe's continuous support of Iran's just cause on the nuclear issue".
Chimanikire is a member of Zimbabwe's opposition who is likely to be replaced now that the election has brought an end to the shaky coalition government.
He said the uranium deal had been made without his knowledge, and was only known to a handful of people at the top of the government.
Despite the agreement, The Times reported analysts as saying that it was likely to be a long time before Zimbabwe's uranium reserves were ready for export.
10 August 2013, 07:50
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I'm convinced by Israel's lack of credibility regarding the matter that this game of accusation is simply a ploy to get more funding, more control, and more leverage over the middle east. This is basically because Israel in its entirety is like an American base with no Americans, which is the best option for 'mericans.
(choose whatever link you wish: https://www.google.com/search?q=All+the+Years+Israel+Said+an+Iranian+Nuke+was+Imminen )
10 August 2013, 07:50
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Delicious uranium. The world needs more nuclear fission reactors and mid-orbital high-energy quantum-solar quasi-photon extractors.
On a more serious matter, if Iran wanted to weaponize uranium it could have just gotten thorium, which is less dangerous and less suspicious. It would then build reactors and allow unconditional access to UN inspectors. Once the suspicion is lifted Iran could harvest some of the waste of the reactor ( which would be U-233 -- fissile enough to be weaponized ) and slowly stock up on it.
Iran has some of the brightest nuclear scientists on the planet and if they wanted to build an atomic bomb they would have ages ago. Israel has been warning of Iran's 'imminent' nuclear bomb fabrication since the 1980's!
