- LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Iran
appears to be in the late stages of building a nuclear bomb and has sought
help from scientists in Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan, the Los
Angeles Times reported on Monday.
-
- Citing its own three-month investigation into Iran's
clandestine nuclear capacity, the Times said it had strong evidence Iran's
commercial program masked a plan to become the world's next nuclear power
and it was "much closer to producing a bomb than Iraq ever was."
-
- Iran has consistently denied it has plans to build nuclear
weapons and has said its program is for peaceful civilian use.
-
- The Times, in the story from Vienna, said it was unclear
when Iran might produce its first atomic weapons. Some experts thought
two to three years was likely while others believed the Iranian government
had probably not given a final go-ahead.
-
- In Vienna, a spokesman for the International Atomic Energy
Agency declined to comment on the story. "We do not comment on media
reports," spokesman Lothar Wedekind told Reuters.
-
- The story cited a confidential report by the French government
in May it said concluded Iran was "surprisingly close" to having
enriched uranium or plutonium for a bomb.
-
- Reuters last month reported that U.N. nuclear inspectors
found traces of enriched uranium in environmental samples taken during
recent inspections in Iran.
-
- Foreign intelligence officials told the times the CIA
had briefed them on a contingency plan for U.S. air and missile attacks
against Iranian nuclear installations.
-
- "It would be foolish not to present the commander
in chief with all of the options, including that one," one of the
officials was quoted as saying. The CIA declined comment on such a plan
to the paper.
-
- The newspaper said North Korean military scientists were
recently monitored entering Iranian nuclear facilities and were assisting
in the design of a nuclear warhead.
-
- A Middle Eastern intelligence official was also quoted
as saying Pakistan's role in helping Iran develop a nuclear program was
"bigger from the beginning than we thought."
-
- Russian scientists, sometimes traveling to Iran under
false identities and working without their government's approval, were
also helping to complete a special reactor that could produce weapons-grade
plutonium, the paper said.
-
- Tehran has also imported 1.8 tons of nuclear material
from China in 1991 and processed some of it to manufacture uranium metal,
the report said.
-
- Another indicator Iran was in the late stages of weapons
development was the fact that Tehran recently approached European companies
to buy devices that could manipulate large volumes of radio-active material,
technology to forge uranium metal and plutonium and switches that could
trigger a nuclear weapon.
-
-
-
- Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
|
