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Russian expert says Iran can
make nuclear weapons
Guy Faulconbridge
Reuters
Monday April 2, 2007
Russia's leading nuclear scientist said on Monday that it was
just a question of time before Iran developed a nuclear weapon and
it should be stopped.
The Islamic republic, facing a showdown with the United States
over its nuclear ambitions, clearly has the know-how to make atomic
weapons, said Yevgeny Velikhov, a leading physicist and close associate
of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"From a scientific point of view of course they could create
nuclear weapons," Velikhov, president of Russia's Kurchatov
Institute, told reporters. "When they could do it is a more
difficult question."
"If you remember, U.S. scientists expected the Soviet Union
would only be able to create a nuclear bomb by around 1954 at the
earliest," he said.
"They were rather surprised when we created one in 1949,"
he said with a chuckle. Velikhov trained under Igor Kurchatov, the
leader of the Soviet atomic bomb project.
The United States and European Union powers suspect Iran wants
to build nuclear arms while Tehran says its nuclear fuel program
is meant only for civilian power generation.
"If they have decided to create nuclear weapons, then they
could create them," said Velikhov, who was part of Putin's
2004 re-election campaign team.
"It is important that Iran does not get nuclear weapons. If
Iran gets nuclear weapons it will be very negative for the security
of the whole world."
ENRICHING URANIUM
Western powers persuaded the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions
on Iran over its refusal to stop enriching uranium in centrifuge
machines. The program remains at the research stage but Iran aims
to ramp it up to "industrial-scale" enrichment later this
year.
Russian officials have said it would take Iran years to assemble
nuclear warheads and that Tehran has a right to develop civilian
nuclear power.
But analysts say Moscow has toughened its policy toward Iran --
including a delay to the Bushehr nuclear power station which Russia
is helping build -- over concerns about Tehran's nuclear program
and worries about a war in the Gulf.
Most diplomats and nuclear experts believe Iran remains a few years
away from bomb capacity as it has yet to overcome technical problems
such as older centrifuges prone to cracking and overheating, and
impurities in uranium feedstock.
They cannot rule out Iran might have made more progress at secret
military facilities, but there is no intelligence pointing to clandestine
activity at this time.
A Vienna-based diplomat familiar with International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) monitoring said Iran had already grasped enrichment
technology so Western powers should focus on trying to limit the
program rather than shut it down.
"In fact, however, they already have enrichment technology.
To continue to insist on zero centrifuges is doomed to failure and
bound to drive Iran to further reduce the IAEA's access."
Velikhov, who devoted his life to nuclear technology, said the
world's nuclear powers should reject nuclear weapons.
"I consider biological, chemical and nuclear arms should be
forbidden and that the holding and development of nuclear weapons
should be considered a crime against humanity.
"I think all states should reject nuclear weapons, including
the U.S. and Russia," he said.
(Additional reporting by Mark Heinrich in Vienna)
INFOWARS:
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