Iran is helping Venezuela to detect uranium deposits and initial evaluations suggest reserves are significant, the South American government said on Friday — the same day world leaders criticized the Islamic republic of secretly building a uranium-enrichment plant that could be used to make an atomic bomb.
Venezuelan Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz said Iran has been assisting Venezuela with geophysical survey flights and geochemical analysis of deposits, and that evaluations “indicate the existence of uranium in western parts of the country and in Santa Elena de Uairen,” in southeastern Bolivar state.
“We could have important reserves of uranium,” Sanz told reporters upon arrival on Venezuela’s Margarita Island for a weekend Africa-South America summit.
He added that efforts to certify the reserves could begin within the next three years.
The announcement came as revelations that Iran has secretly been building a uranium-enrichment plant provoke concerns among countries including the US, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and China.
On Friday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged Iran in a statement to prove it is not seeking to develop atomic weapons, saying the undeclared construction of an enrichment facility flies in the face of UN Security Council demands for Iran to stop uranium enrichment at its only declared facility.
Iran is under three sets of Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment at what had been its single publicly known enrichment plant, which is being monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said recently that US officials also have “concerns” about a possible transfer of nuclear materials between Iran and Venezuela.
But analysts say Iran, which has significant uranium deposits, currently has no need to import uranium, although those deposits may not be enough to sustain its future enrichment goals.
Sanz dismissed suggestions that Venezuela could aid Iran with its nuclear program, saying Venezuela is only aiming to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Chavez has repeatedly said that all countries should end their nuclear-weapons programs, while insisting that Iran and Venezuela have a “sovereign right” to pursue peaceful nuclear ambitions.
Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington said that regardless of whether the uranium exploration efforts lead to nuclear cooperation, they are going to cause “a serious problem in the relationship” between Caracas and Washington.
Chavez’s government has “clearly announced they’re sort of beginning down this road,” Shifter said.
“It’s going to be very difficult for the US to really pursue any cooperation with Caracas on other issues because this is going to top everything else,” he said.
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