Iran received training from foreign scientists in order to develop the capability to build a nuclear weapon, the
Washington Post reported Sunday.
According to the report, which was published days before the UN nuclear watchdog was expected to release findings on the Tehran's nuclear ambitions, "Western diplomats and nuclear experts" said the International Atomic Energy Agency received intelligence that former Soviet scientists
taught the Iranians to construct the kind of "high-precision detonators"
that can be used to "trigger a nuclear chain reaction."
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Scientists from Pakistan, a US ally, and North Korea also aided Iran in developing its nuclear program. The evidence also points out that Iran received this foreign assistance since 2003, when US intelligence said that Tehran buckled to international pressures and ceased to work on the technology for a nuclear bomb.
Sources briefed on the document disclosed over
the weekend that the IAEA
report will also support allegations that Iran
built a large steel container for carrying out tests with high explosives that
could be used in nuclear weapons,
The IAEA obtained satellite
pictures of the container at Parchin, near Tehran, and other evidence that lent
credence to allegations by IAEA member states that the installation was intended
for nuclear-related explosives testing, the sources said.
The IAEA will
also reveal evidence that Iran carried out computer modeling of a nuclear
weapon, one source said.
Western diplomats said the eagerly-awaited
report will strengthen suspicions that Tehran is seeking to develop the
capability to make atomic bombs, but stop short of explicitly saying it is doing
so.
On Saturday, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi denied any links
between the country’s missile testing and its nuclear program, saying any
document that connects the two is “baseless and non-authentic,” Iran’s FARS News
Agency reported.
The Iranian foreign minister went on to say that if the
IAEA were to release these documents, it would only prove that the nuclear
watchdog was under pressure from “Western powers.”
Iran blasted the US
and Israel on Saturday for their reported plans to attack the Islamic Republic
over its nuclear program, urging the international community – including the
United Nations – to condemn the two nations for their combative
remarks.
Iranian Ambassador to Uruguay Hojjatollah Soltani said that such
threats were a gross violation of international law.
“The UN, by condemning
Israel and the US, will have to prove to all that the world belongs to all
countries and nations, and is not in the hands of only a few states,” Channel 10
quoted Sultani as saying.