via Zim denies secret Iran uranium deal | News24. 2013-08-10 22:50
Zimbabwe has signed a secret deal to supply Iran with the raw materials needed to develop a nuclear weapon, in breach of international sanctions, says a report.
Harare – Zimbabwe on Saturday denied a British newspaper report that it had signed a secret uranium trade deal with Iran.
Mines Minister Obert Mpofu said: “We are free to trade with any country but my ministry has not signed an agreement about uranium with Tehran.”
Mpofu added: “It is fiction and usual wishful thinking of the Western media. Why would we have a secret deal when we are a free country.”
The Times of London newspaper had quoted the deputy mining minister, Gift Chimanikire, as saying: “I have seen (a memorandum of understanding) to export uranium to the Iranians.”
Mpofu is a member of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, while Chimanikire is from the rival Movement for Democratic Change.
The Times quoted analysts as saying that Zimbabwe is still a long way from being able to export uranium.
Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Harare in 2010 and received support from Mugabe for Tehran’s right to a nuclear programme.
Iran’s new president, Hassan Rowhani, last week said his country was ready to allay all Western concerns about its nuclear programme and that the dispute over it could be solved quickly.
Several rounds of talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the Security Council – the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France – plus Germany have so far failed to produce a breakthrough.
The West wants Iran to stop enriching uranium at 20 per cent, which can be easily further enriched to weapons-grade level.
Iran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and says its programme is peaceful.
COMMENTS
Am so disappointed with this format. Many people are missing u barbara. I can no longer enjoy reading the news. Some people think they are smart and spent time creating a fancy site when what we want is news presented in simple format. Barbara’s was user friendly with a lot of content and the updating was very timeous. I guess i have to stop visiting this site
They should deny because if it is true, Israel ets will bomb Mugabe out of office. They can play around with Tsvangirayi but not with the Jewish State of Israel.Israel takes its security seriously.Zimbabwe will be destroyed back to stone age
I agree with mutakura, this format is not reader friendly.
But thumbs up for the addition of the comments section.
True. We are getting far less. More modern format… but short on content relatively… which is critical to readers. We understand the transitional element but are sure this can still be adjusted.
Nothing radically different about this format. Comments section most welcome. Positive evolution I’d say.
Far preferred the old format. Was a quick, easy way to look at current media activity. Sorry to see you preferring form above substance and content. As for comments – usually just an ego-trip for the ill-informed.
Thanks OMR. It’s been a difficult few days. Filling Barbara’s shoes at short notice has been a challenge. We’ve also had to figure out the best way to preserve 13 years worth of archive (nearly 10000 files) sitting on an overloaded server. Then had to figure out a content management system that can be used by a few volunteers to spread the workload. Nearly 50% of this audience is now using smartphones and tablets which are evolving a bit more rapidly than we all expected too. So the outcome is a responsive layout that helps us volunteers (currently one) make the job a bit lighter. Now there might be some time to get substance and content at the top of the day’s work list.
Thank you too for leaving a comment – it’s appreciated.