Iran strikes secret nuclear mining deal with Zimbabwe's Mugabe regime

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... egime.html

Iran has struck a secret deal with Zimbabwe to mine its untapped uranium reserves in a move to secure raw material for its steadily expanding nuclear programme.
 

By Itai Mushekwe and Harriet Alexander
Published: 10:00PM BST 24 Apr 2010


The agreement was sealed last month during a visit to Tehran by a close aide to Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president who last weekend celebrated 30 years in power, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

In return for supplying oil, which Zimbabwe desperately needs to keep its faltering economy moving, Iran has been promised access to potentially huge deposits of uranium ore – which can be converted into the basic fuel for nuclear power or enriched to make a nuclear bomb.

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"Iran secured the exclusive uranium rights last month when minister of state for Presidential affairs, Didymus Mutasa visited Tehran," said a Zimbabwean government source. "That is when the formal signing of the deal was made, away from the glare of the media."

Mr Mutasa is the former lands minister in the Zanu-PF administration and one of Mr Mugabe's most senior aides.

The revelation came after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, visited Zimbabwe last week to show his support for Mr Mugabe. At a lavish official dinner in his honour on Thursday evening, Mr Ahmadinejad blasted what he termed "expansionist countries" for exerting "satanic pressures on the people of Zimbabwe", adding: "We believe victory is ours, and humiliation and defeat is for our enemies."

Mr Mugabe said both Zimbabwe and Iran were targeted by the West because they wanted to manage their own natural resources.

"We remain resolute in defending Zimbabwe's right to exercise it sovereignty over its natural resources. We have equally supported Iran's right to peaceful use of nuclear energy as enshrined in the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty," he said.

The uranium deal will heighten fears in the West that Iran is stepping up its nuclear programme, which intelligence agencies believe is intended to lead to the development of nuclear weapons in the near future.

Iran maintains that its efforts are aimed solely at providing energy but the United Nations Security Council is considering imposing harsher sanctions against it because of its refusal to allow proper monitoring of its nuclear sites. Mr Ahmadinejad has boasted of his country's plans to step up construction and use of the special centrifuges needed to enrich uranium to ever higher levels – putting a nuclear weapon within reach.

Most of Iran's uranium came from South Africa during the 1970s, but its stockpiles are running low, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt, so its access to Zimbabwe's reserves has been granted at a crucial moment.

The government source added: "The uranium deal is the culmination of a lot of work dating back to 2007, when Mr Mugabe visited Tehran in search of fuel. Now Iran is beginning to reap the benefits.

"Iranian geologists have being conducting feasibility studies of the mineral for over a year now and we expect them to go ahead with mining once they are ready."

A senior official at the Iranian embassy in Harare confirmed Tehran had been offered the uranium rights, after negotiations over many years. "After a lot of diplomatic work and understanding, we have received reports of a deal having been made for Iran to mine not only uranium but also other metals," he said.

The pact seems certain to place Iran under even greater scrutiny by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"If Zimbabwe and Iran were to announce a deal, then I am sure it is something the IAEA would be very interested in," said an IAEA source.

Any deal to supply Iran is likely to put Zimbabwe in breach of current UN sanctions on Iran. Under Security Council Resolution 1737, passed in December 2006, all countries are ordered to "prevent the supply, sale or transfer ... of all items, materials, equipment, goods and technology which could contribute to Iran's enrichment-related, reprocessing or heavy water-related activities."

The UN Sanctions Committee which deals with Resolution 1737 said that if the issue of uranium mining in Zimbabwe was raised, it would investigate.

Mr Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba insisted that mining rights had not yet been finalised, but he defended Iran's right to apply for them.

"The Iranians have a peaceful nuclear program. This cannot be said about the Americans who mined uranium in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and went on to produce a nuclear bomb used to attack Japan," he said. "We have our uranium and no one is mining it, until we decide otherwise," he said.

Uranium was first discovered in the Kanyemba district, about 150 miles north of the capital Harare by German prospectors in the 1980s but were not exploited due to low world prices.

Russia, Australia, South Africa and Namibia are among nations that have also expressed a desire to tap into the mineral wealth.

The extent of Zimbabwe's uranium reserves is uncertain, although some metallurgists believe that they may be very large. Initial exploration has indicated that there are an estimated 450,000 tonnes of uranium ore with some 20,000 tonnes of extractable uranium.

David Albright, founder of the Washington-based think tank Institute for Science and International Security, said that Iran was certainly looking for ways to access uranium but they risked serious consequences if they sought to import the materials.

"It would definitely anger Russia and China, as the more they are seen to be evading sanctions, the worse it is for Iran," he said.

"There is a great deal of nervousness about Iran's secrecy, and if they are secretly seeking uranium, is this to run a parallel nuclear programme to its declared one? Iran's underhand dealings helps line up support for stronger sanctions."