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Iran Reportedly Smuggling Nuclear-Related Materials
Iran is smuggling graphite and a graphite compound that could be used in nuclear weapons, an Iranian dissident and a senior diplomat said Friday (see GSN, May 20). While it has civilian and conventional weapons uses, graphite can also be used to encase weapon-grade uranium in nuclear warheads, the Associated Press reported. Tehran has been forced to obtain such dual-use items on the black market, Iranian exile Alireza Jafarzadeh told AP. “It is not clear how much governments are involved,” Jafarzadeh said. Iran is “using front companies to deceive other companies, other entities in foreign countries, and they wouldn’t know what the destination would be.” A senior diplomat familiar with intelligence on Iran said Tehran also may be attempting to acquire heat-resistant “nuclear-grade graphite.” Jafarzadeh said Tehran is constructing a plant for graphite technology near the town of Ardekan for what Iranian officials say is steel manufacturing (George Jahn, Associated Press/Washington Post, May 21). Iranian leaders have yet to discuss a possible plan to ship uranium hexafluoride gas produced in Iran to Russia for enrichment into atomic fuel, Reuters reported Saturday. The proposal originated in Moscow, Ali Aghamohammadi of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council told Reuters on Saturday. “We have not discussed it yet,” he said. Moscow, however, denied the idea came from Russia. “I do not have any information that that we have suggested supplying Iran with fuel,” a spokesman for the Russian Atomic Energy Agency said (Reuters, May 21). U.S. officials have rejected the idea, Agence France-Presse reported Saturday. “First of all, Russia has already agreed to provide at least the first decade’s worth of enriched uranium fuel for Iran’s nuclear reactor at Bushehr,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. “So Iran would have no need to do any conversion work whatsoever.” The proposal “only reinforces our view that Iran’s enrichment and conversion effort is, in fact, designed to contribute to the capabilities that are needed to develop nuclear weapons,” Boucher said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 21). Wednesday’s scheduled meeting between EU and Iranian negotiators will be crucial to resolving the nuclear standoff, Tehran announced yesterday. “The Geneva meeting will show whether we can reach a result with the Europeans,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi. “Iran will no longer accept the policy of wasting time and finding excuses,” he said. “Restarting Isfahan’s facility is an irreversible decision and we will do it anyway,” said Asefi. “If we can do it based on an agreement it will be better” (Reuters, May 22). British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw today warned Iran to maintain its freeze on sensitive nuclear activities, AFP reported. “I think [the negotiations] will be tough, but I think very much they will be successful,” Straw said. “The Iranians are tough to negotiate with, but so far the Iranians have accepted, as we, that it is in the interest of Iran, Europe and the international community that we should reach agreement,” he said (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, May 23). Iran does not want its case referred to the U.N. Security Council, said Gary Samore, an Iran expert at the International Institute of Strategic Studies. “I think Iran’s position is weaker now because the Western allies are working in much closer consort” than prior to the U.S. presidential election in November, Samore told AFP. “That argues in favor of Iran continuing to delay (resuming the nuclear program) until they feel they’re in a stronger position and they can afford to walk away from the negotiations with the EU-3 with less danger,” he said. Iranian officials also likely have taken a harder line due to upcoming elections, said Ali Ansari, an analyst at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “Basically, I don’t think the Iranians are going ahead with their uranium enrichment as yet. I think they’ll wait, then the Europeans will say: ‘Let’s wait till your elections are over’” (Lachlan Carmichael, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 22). Diplomats at the International Atomic Energy Agency warned that member states might refer Iran’s case to the Security Council if talks fail, AFP reported Friday. The agency’s Board of Governors wants a commitment from Iran that it will give up its nuclear plans, said diplomats. However, one diplomat said Friday that uranium conversion posed “no immediate threat they would develop nuclear weapons” (Jean-Michel Stoullig, Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, May 20).
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