Russia has no proofs that Iran plans to develop nuclear weapons, the Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabov says. And to bring accusations against Iran without serious proofs is unjustified and irresponsible, the diplomat stressed, commenting on the statements of the former U.S. defence secretary William Perry to the effect that Iran's objective is to obtain nuclear weapons as soon as possible.
There's an impression that a number of Western countries with the USA at the head have put themselves a task to prove by all means that Iran's nuclear programme is military in character. That is why are juggling with facts. And when they find them insufficient, they engage in wishful thinking. Information "leaks" occur regularly because what follows is a loud comment.
There have occurred several such leaks during the past week. At first "The Times" of London reported that Iran, allegedly, is testing a starting gear for a nuclear bomb. Official Tehran said this is wrong, and though its opponents had no proofs, this news was carefully discussed at various levels, and various suppositions were made on that score.
And now the "Associate Press" agency spread the news that Iran is close to clinching a deal over the import of 1350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan, bypassing the current sanctions of the UN Security Council. A secret contract is 450 million dollars worth, as they say. The number of nuclear warheads, which could be made out of the Kazakh purified uranium ore, is also counted - 150. And nobody pays any attention to statements, made by the adviser to the chairman of the UN Committee on Sanctions Zongo Saidu that neither he nor his colleagues have any information about the contacts between Tehran and Astana over illegal import, which could be regarded as trustworthy.
As it appears, such "leaks" should promote the increase of pressure, which is currently being put on Iran by Western countries, the head of the Centre for Oriental Studies at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry Andrei Volodin says:
"What was published by the "Associated Press" agency is one of such propagandist actions, having for an object, on the one hand, to raise the authority of the "Associated Press" agency and on the other, to once again call attention to the so-called Iranian nuclear issue. And as regards Kazakhstan, we should stress here that all reports saying that it is holding talks with a number of countries on the supplies of nuclear raw materials for their further processing appeared earlier too but were not confirmed afterwards".
Kazakhstan has officially rejected all information about its secret deal with Iran. However, Iran's opponents, who are determined to prove that its nuclear programme is military in character, take into account only those facts, which fit in well into the framework of their propagandist campaign.
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