ROWHANI SAYS IRAN HAS NOT IMPORTED NUCLEAR PARTS
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC NEWS AGENCY
June 2, 2004
Tehran, June 2, IRNA -- Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Hassan
Rowhani said here on Wednesday that Iran has not imported any parts, rather the
general model for manufacture of centrifuges through a middleman. Addressing
a press conference here on Wednesday, Rowhani said Iran produces parts at home,
purchasing a number of parts, that have different industrial applications, such
as magnet, that is applied both in the P1 and P2 systems. Rowhani said that in
all, Iran has not imported any special part for centrifuges because it produces
them at home. He said Iran had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) of the issue completely. Asked to comment on certain parts, found in Iran
after being stolen from Libya and imported to the country via Pakistan and Turkey, Rowhani
said Libya had put whatever it had at the US disposal and nothing remains to
be taken anywhere. He said that baselessness of the claims is evident from Libyans who
have collected all their parts and delivered them all to Americans. Regarding
identity of the middlemen from whom Iran and Libya had obtained the parts, Rowhani
said Libya`s attempt to purchase general model for development of the nuclear
arms and Iran`s refusal to make such attempt set the best reason Iran has not
been trying to develop nuclear arms. " If you mean we have purchased the
parts from the same middleman who sold the parts to Libya, you should be careful
that Libya has bought both the parts and the design for production of bombs,
but Iran has only purchased the part. Had we attempted to develop nuclear arms,
we would also have tried to attain the design for the bomb." As for the
time for suspension of the P1 production at private workshops, Rowhani said the
program will be stopped when an agreement is reached with private workshops but
no specific date is set for the project yet. Asked whether Iran had informed
Europe and the IAEA of its plan to suspend the project as long as it wishes,
Rowhani said the project has been suspended at the state-run workshops but not
at three private workshops because in that case, government have to compensate
the cost, while government had not set aside any budget for the issue. He said
the IAEA report has also pointed that production of the parts is continuing at
the three workshops because Iran had not been able to solve the problem of compensation. He
said three private workshops are producing P1 parts alike the state-run workshops. The
official said the P2 issues is something deserving due research, which has not
yet completed. He said Iran would decide producing P2 parts whenever pertinent research
is completed. Rowhani said Iran had produced samples of the parts as the IAEA experts
have observed during their inspection. He said that Iran had even provided the
former meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors with photos of the parts. Asked
about Iran`s expectation of the next IAEA Board meeting, Rowhani said Iran had
already been a signatory to agreements with the European Union, hoping that they
would fulfil their commitments. He said Iran would postpone judgement on Europe
to after the Board meeting. He added that Iran expects friendly states to have
fair judgement about national program of Iran.
