WikiLeaks: Venezuela-Iran nuclear link ridiculed in cable By
*JTA*<[email protected]>

12/12/2010 17:41

Nuclear physicist quoted as saying Venezuela unable technologically to help
Teheran develop atomic bomb. Talkbacks (4)

 CARACAS (JTA) --Rumors that
Venezuela<http://newstopics.jpost.com/topic/Venezuela>is helping Iran
develop a nuclear bomb were ridiculed in a new cache of
diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.

“A plain-spoken nuclear physicist [said] that those spreading rumors that
Venezuela is helping third countries (i.e. Iran) develop atomic bombs are
full of (expletive)... . Venezuela is currently unable to provide such
assistance particularly as the Chavez administration “does not trust
scientists.”

RELATED:
Wikileaks: Kouchner warns 'prepare for war' with
Iran<http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=198709>
WikiLeaks sheds light on plight of Venezuela's
Jews<http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=197760>

It has been speculated in the past that Iran’s interest in developing close
ties with Venezuela is centered on its nuclear ambitions and desire to
exploit Venezuela’s untapped uranium deposits. Last year, press reports
citing an Israeli Military Foreign Affairs Ministry document claimed that
Bolivia <http://newstopics.jpost.com/topic/Bolivia> and Venezuela were
supplying uranium to Iran.

  The cable also noted that the country’s deteriorated scientific
infrastructure, by its own admission, is not capable at present of
determining whether or not uranium concentrations are high enough to
exploit.

“...Even if the Venezuelan government used all Cuban scientists, exploring
the commercially viable uranium deposits in Venezuela would require a large
taskforce and news of such an effort would leak quickly,” said the cable,
dated June 2009.

Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad<http://newstopics.jpost.com/topic/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad>and
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have met nearly a dozen times and
signed billions of dollars worth of economic agreements. Chavez has called
Iran a “brother nation” to Venezuela.

[image: Click here for full Jpost coverage of the latest
Wikileaks]<http://newstopics.jpost.com/topic/Wikileaks#3>

Rumors of a nuclear partnership between the two allies “may burnish
[Venezuela’s] revolutionary credentials” but have little basis in reality,
the cable concluded.

The cable also scorned a nuclear cooperation agreement signed last year
between Venezuela and Russia, in which Venezuela announced it would spend
billions to buy nuclear fuel plants from Russia, as “political theater.”

“The agreement between Venezuela and Russia on nuclear cooperation has no
real substance.”


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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