London, Dec 4: A blue print for making an atomic bomb found in Iran has been traced back to the AQ Khan Research laboratories in Pakistan which, the British foreign secretary believes, could be part of the ‘circumstantial evidence’ for taking Tehran’s case to the United Nations Security Council.
Official records reveal that Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told MPs on Nov 29: “The evidence, which originally came from a document from the AQ Khan Research Laboratories in *Pakistan*, tells us that the Iranians had in their possession information that could lead to the development of the hemispheres, which for certain have no purpose other than the development of nuclear weapons.”
The document, provided to the IAEA by Iran, is in addition to the “old and discarded parts of centrifuges”, which Pakistan had sent to the IAEA earlier this year for comparative analysis.
Mr Straw said: “It is my working belief that Iran is at the very least developing the options for a nuclear weapons programme… What the evidence does not tell us for certain is what Iran intended to do with that. It is a piece of circumstantial evidence and we need to treat it as such.”
However, the document was being used by the American and British diplomats to convince Moscow and Beijing that Tehran intended to build nuclear weapons and also to ask the IAEA for more intrusive inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities.
“We have been involved in intensive discussions with the Russian and Chinese governments—at head of state and government level, as well as foreign minister and senior official level—and I believe that they are likely to bear significant fruit,” Mr Straw said.
He said the EU foreign ministers and their senior officials were in close and continuous touch on the issue of Iran.
