(Telegraph-UK) Damien McElroy - Iran is operating a worldwide recruitment network for nuclear scientists to lure them to the country to work on its nuclear weapons program. The country is particularly reliant on North Korean scientists but also recruits people with expertise from African countries to work on developing missiles and nuclear production. Mohamed Reza Heydari, a former Iranian consul in Oslo, told the Daily Telegraph that he had personally helped scores of North Koreans enter the country while working for the foreign ministry's office at Tehran airport. "We had the instructions to forego any visa and passport inspections for Palestinians belonging to Hamas and North Korean military and engineering staff who visit Iran on a regular basis." "The North Koreans were all technicians and military experts involved in two aspects of Iran's nuclear program. One to enable Iran to achieve nuclear bomb capability, and the other to help increase the range of Iran's ballistic missiles." "The facade of the nuclear program is that it is for peaceful purposes, but behind it they have a completely different agenda." A Western official said there were indications that Iran was developing North Korea standard centrifuges - which are larger and better engineered - at secret sites not declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
2010-12-23 10:23:04Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive