Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Iran Said Trying to Fit Missiles for Nukes

It should be noted:

Iran has completed the integration of a new Chinese-origin navigation system on the Shihab-3 during the latest test of the intermediate-range missile.
http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/august/08_17_1.html

Given that China and Iran have signed a 100 billion dollar gas deal that eventually could take the total value to as much as 200 billion dollars and that China is known to trade weapons for oil or gas, these showcased weapons could already be in Iran’s hands.
#msg-4431516

Through bilateral agreements, rather than international mechanisms, and using arms sales and dual-use technology transfers - nuclear equipment, guidance systems for missiles - to cement ties, China has obtained oil exploration and exploitation rights in some of the most turbulent nations in the Middle East and North Africa - Iran, Sudan, Libya, Algeria and, until the recent war, Iraq.
#msg-3830816
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=041118&cat=news&st=newsd86e9qbo0&src=...

-Am



Updated 8:01 AM ET November 18, 2004


By ALAN CLENDENNING

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - The United States has intelligence indicating Iran is trying to fit missiles to carry nuclear weapons, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said.

Powell partially confirmed claims by an Iranian opposition group that Tehran is deceiving the United Nations and is attempting to secretly continue activities meant to give it atomic arms by next year.

"I have seen intelligence which would corroborate what this dissident group is saying," Powell told reporters Wednesday as he traveled to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Santiago. "And it should be of concern to all parties."

Pressed by reporters on the intelligence reports, Powell said the intelligence indicates that Iran "had been actively working on delivery systems" capable of carrying a nuclear weapon.

Powell said there is no evidence to suggest that Iran has developed the technology to make a nuclear weapon, but suggested that the regime is working to adapt missiles for nuclear warheads.



"I'm talking about information that says that they not only had these missiles, but I'm aware of information that suggests they were working hard as to how to put the two together," Powell said.

A senior official for the National Council for Resistance in Iran said Tuesday that a bomb diagram _ along with an unspecified amount of weapons-grade uranium _ was provided to Iran by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced former head of Pakistani's nuclear development which was tied to both Iran and Libya.

He said the designs were handed to the Iranians between 1994 and 1996, while Khan delivered HEU _ highly enriched uranium _ in 2001.

Banned in the United States as a terrorist organization, the group was instrumental in 2002 in revealing Iran's enrichment program in the central city of Natanz, based on what it said was information provided by sources in Iran.

The opposition group says a facility at Lavizan-Shian northeast of Tehran was part of a secret nuclear weapons program.

Powell declined comment on Khan, but said "for 20 years the Iranians have been trying to hide things from the international community."

Iran says its sole interest is to generate nuclear fuel through low-level uranium enrichment, but the United States suspects Iran wants to produce weapons-grade enriched uranium.

Enrichment does not violate the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty but the International Atomic Energy Agency and most of its members want Iran to scrap enrichment plans as a confidence building measure.

Iran announced suspension of enrichment last week, and the agency said it would police that commitment starting next week, in advance of a Nov. 25 IAEA board meeting.

The pledge reduced Washington's hopes of having the board refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for alleged violations of the Nonproliferation Treaty.

Tehran has not dropped plans to run 50,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for what it says will be the fuel requirements of a nuclear reactor to be finished next year.

It currently possesses less than 1,000 centrifuges. But if it added 500 centrifuges, experts say Iran would be able to make enough weapons-grade uranium to make a bomb annually.

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On the Net:www.iaea.org

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



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