June 2, 2004
Weapon Program:
- Nuclear
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.