| Al-Jiz, you'll need your lasix. |
Pakistan sent some components of old centrifuges to the IAEA to help an investigation into Iran's nuclear program. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) demanded Pakistan to hand over the components to determine whether contamination found at Iran's nuclear sites had come from Pakistan or any other source, a foreign ministry official said.
"Components of an old and discarded centrifuge, which have no bearing on our national security, they have been sent with our experts to IAEA for their analysis," ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said. ''The IAEA would share the results of the investigation with us," he said, adding that Pakistan is cooperating on a voluntary basis in line with its commitment "to promote nuclear non-proliferation."
| The IAEA is actually doing an investigation? I feel faint, I'd best go lie down ... |
Jilani also noted that Tehran asked Pakistan to cooperate with the IAEA to clear up the controversy over its nuclear program.
IAEA inspectors could compare the parts with machinery sold to Iran by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb program, who is under virtual house arrest in Islamabad after admitting last year that he passed nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. The centrifuges components could hold evidence of uranium traces found on equipment in Iran, experts say.
| Oh, I see, the IAEA is looking to let Iran off the hook. Hokay, now it makes sense. |
Iran, which insists that its nuclear program is strictly for the peaceful generation of electricity, said that the contaminated equipment came from imported machinery and not from enrichment activities in its nuclear facilities.
Iran has been under investigation for more than two years by the UN nuclear watchdog. So far, the IAEA didn't find any evidence that substantiate the U.S. claims that Tehran is secretly developing atomic weapons. |