From: mtaghavi@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Amir Taghavi)
Subject: U.S. objects to China-Iran nuclear cooperation
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 04:40:27 GMT


	WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The administration has informed China that the
sale to Iran of a nuclear power plant for commercial use is ``highly
imprudent and should be avoided,'' an official said Friday.
	State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the sale of nuclear
technology to Iran, which has committed itself to nuclear non-
proliferation, is unwise under any circumstances.
	``Any nuclear cooperation with Iran, even for peaceful purposes and
even under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards...is highly
imprudent and should be avoided,'' he said. ``We have made our views on
nuclear cooperation with Iran known to all nuclear suppliers, including
China.''
	Boucher said it is unclear whether Iran, an Islamic fundamentalist
nation that is staunchly anti-American and anti-West, can ``be trusted
to live up to its commitments in nuclear non-proliferation.''
	Iran and other Islamic nations have stated that the Moslem community
needs a nuclear weapons capability to offset a strategic imbalance with
the West.
	Pakistan is the only Islamic country known to possess the technology
to detonate a nuclear bomb. The United States, Russia, China, France,
Great Britian, and India are the only nations known to have detonated a
nuclear device. Arms control experts strongly suspect that Israel has a
nuclear weapons capability.
	China and Iran announced Thursday that the two nations had struck a
deal in which Beijing and Teheran would cooperate on the construction of
a nuclear power plant.
	The announcement comes as tensions between Beijing and Washington
have risen over the administration's plan to sell up to 150 advanced F-
16 Fighting Falcons to Taiwan.
	Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, on a four-day visit this week
to Beijing, said that his country would allow the International Atomic
Energy Agency to conduct inspections of the new plant.
	The Vienna-based IAEA found no evidence of nuclear wrongdoing during
inspections this year at a research reactor China is helping Iran
develop in Isfahan. But China has provided Iran with a calutron, U.S.
officials said, which is a key component for producing nuclear weapons.
	CIA Director Robert Gates told Congress in February that China was
helping Iran upgrade its military capability with missile and nuclear
technology.
	Boucher said that Iran's adherence to IAEA inspections and to its
pledge to abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty might not
prevent Teheran from obtaining a nuclear weapons capability.
	``While the provision of a nuclear power reactor under International
Atomic Energy Agency safeguards does not necessarily pose a direct
nuclear proliferation risk, such cooperation would inevitably result in
an enhancement of Iran's nuclear infrastructure which could be applied
to activities of direct nuclear non-proliferation concern,'' he said.
	``And that's the basic reason why we oppose this kind of a
cooperation with Iran.''


-- 
        (/          /////////         * *    * *            //    (M)  //
       (/          ((           (0)   (0)    //      ///////////////  //
 MY   (/            ///////     //////////////      //  * *          //
 TM   (///////////////////   ///                 ////               //