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Iran Nuclear Program Indigenous, says Kharrazi
Munir Ahmad • Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, 30 August 2003 — Iran’s foreign minister and top Pakistani officials reiterated yesterday denials that Pakistan has helped Iran develop a nuclear program, after high-level meetings in the capital.
“It’s false... Iran’s nuclear program is totally indigenous,” Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said at a joint press conference with his Pakistani counterpart, Khursheed Kasuri.
Iran’s nuclear program has been a cause of concern for many Western countries. Kharrazi, however, reiterated his government’s assurance that it is not developing nuclear weapons and that it cooperates with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.
“We don’t have any secret program... and the IAEA is in place to watch us,” he said.
Kharrazi said Iran’s nuclear program, including an enrichment plant, was indigenous, although it had imported some components from “dealers”, some of which were contaminated.
He said that was why the International Atomic Energy Agency had found traces of enriched uranium in some samples.
“This is what we have explained to the IAEA and I am sure that they will come to the same conclusion when they finalize their analysis and their information gathering.”
Kharrazi said there was no risk of the enrichment plant being used to produce weapons grade uranium and this could be proven by IAEA inspections.
Both foreign ministers have also denied that the two countries are cooperating in the field of nuclear technology. Kasuri said that Pakistan “has never supplied... any assistance for Iran’s nuclear program.”
Bitter rivals Pakistan and India are both nuclear powers, with each conducting nuclear tests in 1998. Pakistan has been accused in international press reports of selling nuclear technology to both Iran and North Korea, two of Washington’s bitterest foes. Pakistan has denied the allegations.
Kasuri added, however, that Pakistan “supports the right of Iran to develop its (own) peaceful nuclear program.”
Kharrazi earlier met with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali and other top officials. Last December, Iranian President Mohammed Khatami traveled to Pakistan in the first visit by an Iranian head of state since 1992.
Pakistan and Iran have been at odds for years, mostly over neighboring Afghanistan, which both countries border. Before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, Pakistan staunchly backed the Taleban regime, while Iran supported the anti-Taleban northern alliance.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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