World Tribune.com

Intelligence officials: Russia gave Iran nuke tech to save reactor deal

By Steve Rodan, Middle East Newsline
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, June 6, 2000

TEL AVIV -- Russia has transferred to Iran technology and components for the development of nuclear weapons, Israeli and U.S. intelligence sources said.

The sources said Russia has recently transferred technology and components for the enrichment of uranium to produce fissile material needed for nuclear weapons. The technology includes the capability to produce highly enriched uranium through one of several methods -- including centrifugal separation.

"I call this the year of decision because Iran is developing nuclear weapons," Brig. Gen. Amos Gilead, head of military intelligence research division, said. "Iran is trying to gather resources to develop the nuclear weapons. If they're not stopped now, in five or seven years, Iran will deploy nuclear weapons. In strategic terms, seven years is the blink of an eye."

The sources said the technology is part of a Russian effort to ensure that Iran does not stop the construction of the civilian nuclear reactor at Bushehr. They said Iran has determined that a nuclear power plant is currently economically unfeasible. The Russian contract is estimated at more than $1 billion while the contract for nuclear weapons technology transfer is regarded as being that of only tens of millions of dollars.

The transfer of the unspecified Russian technology is being authorized by the Russian Nuclear Energy Ministry, the sources said. They said minister Viktor Adamov has led the effort in ensuring that Iran obtains nuclear weapons capability.

"We are more convinced than at any other time in the past that to preserve the Bushehr contract, he [Adamov] is ready to ignore and look away from the transfer of nuclear military technology to Iran," a senior Israeli intelligence source said.

The U.S. and Israeli sources said Iran will probably maintain Bushehr under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, but produce fissile material at a secret facility. They said a team of Russians unconnected to Bushehr is working on the nuclear weapons project.

Israel and the United States have discussed the issue in recent strategic talks. U.S. officials acknowledge the Iranian effort and said Moscow has made a decision to supply Teheran with nuclear weapons technology to ensure that Iran does not undermine Russia, which is currently battling Islamic insurgents in Chechnya.

The issue was discussed in talks between U.S. President Bill Clinton and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow on Sunday.

"Russia is opposed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said Leon Fuerth, national security adviser to Vice President Al Gore, who heads a U.S. committee to discuss proliferation issues with Moscow. "It is the execution that is the problem. Now, we have worked with them persistently. We have a degree of progress in the area of ballistic missile technology with things left to be done. We have ongoing and serious concerns on the nuclear side."

Fuerth told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on May 15 that Russia feels it could buy long-term security from Iran through developing Teheran's intermediate- and long-range ballistic missiles as well as nuclear weapons. "For that, if you want to call it strategic reason, I think they have had an interest in making sure that the Iranians felt that Russia would be sympathetic to their requirements," he said.

On Monday, a conference opened in the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk to discuss the conversion of weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear power stations. The conference is being attended by scientists and specialists from Russia, Britain, France, India and the United States.

Tuesday, June 6, 2000

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