A Pakistani official said Thursday that his country's disgraced nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had given centrifuges to Iran, but not with the government's consent.
It was Pakistan's first specific public declaration that the nuclear technology had been sold to Iran, though it stopped short of saying what else had been supplied by Khan's black-market network. The official, Information Minister Sheik Rashid Ahmed, did not discuss sales to other nations and he reiterated Pakistan's refusal to let foreign investigators interview Khan.
"This was an individual act, nothing to do with the government of Pakistan," Ahmed said in a telephone interview Thursday evening. Other Pakistani officials also have insisted that Khan worked without help from government officials, even though some of his equipment was transported on Pakistani military aircraft.
Ahmed first made his remarks at a news conference in Islamabad, the capital, earlier in the day, according to news agency reports.
Senior officials of the CIA and other intelligence services have expressed frustration that they have not been able to question Khan directly, and they have said they are suspicious about some of the answers that get passed back to them from Pakistani officials.
Ahmed said, "We have investigated him and have no intention of giving up."
Centrifuges can enrich uranium, turning it into fuel for nuclear power plants or, with considerable enrichment, for weapons. Iran has maintained that it wants enriched uranium only to generate electric power. President Bush contends that Iran's true intent is to build a bomb, although the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said it has not found proof of an Iranian weapons project. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to visit India and Pakistan next week.
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