Zimbabwe’s government yesterday denied a report in the British newspaper The Times that it had reached a secret uranium export deal with Iran.
The Times story published on Saturday quoted outgoing deputy minister of mines Gift Chimanikire that Zimbabwe signed a deal with Iran to supply the Islamic republic with the raw materials needed to develop a nuclear weapon.
But Mines and Mining Development Minister Obert Mpofu said the report was a “fiction”. “That’s fiction because I have never been asked by the Iranian government or anyone from Iran for mining concessions,” Mpofu said. “They never applied for mining licences whether to mine uranium or any other mineral. The country is not mining uranium. If Chimanikire told the reporter about an agreement to export uranium to Iran maybe it was in a dream.”
Zimbabwean police are looking for two Times journalists, Jan Raath and Jerome Starkey, who are wanted for “spreading falsehoods” in the uranium deal story, according to Zimbabwe’s state newspaper The Sunday Mail.
Source:AFP
