Azerbaijan, Baku, 15 December / Trend , E.Ostapenko /
It needs to carefully approach the reports in the British press about Iran's testing a major component of the atomic bomb, like other secret documents. However, the likelihood on Iran's conducting such tests is still high, experts say.
"The report in the Times of London should be treated cautiously, as the document has not been verified and that paper has a record of printing unsubstantiated information," Adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Thomas Lippman, wrote to Trend in an e-mail.
The report that Iran is testing a key component needed to build a nuclear bomb was provided by the Times newspaper, referring to the secret documents obtained by the newspaper.
As though these documents, dated from the beginning of 2007, described a four-year plan for Iran's testing of a neutron initiator - a component of a nuclear bomb, which triggers the mechanism of explosion. It deals with the technical documentation, which describes the use of uranium deuteride, which is not applied anywhere except nuclear weapons, the newspaper reported, referring to the opinion of independent experts.
Given the naturally hidden nature of any secret weapon plans, one always has to be cautious with "secret documents", believes Konstantin Kosten, an expert on Iran. But there are also several serious reasons to doubt the only civil nature of the Iranian nuclear programme".
" Due to the unclear decision-making situation in Iran concerning its nuclear programme, it is possible that there might be secret approaches towards the virtual military nuclear capability," Kosten, Programme Officer for North Africa and Near and Middle East Program at German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), wrote to Trend in an email.
Iran has the second or third oil reserves in the world, which could be an alternative source of electricity in the country. But Iran insists on its nuclear program, and consequently losses billions of dollars, supposes Professor at the University of Glasgow, Reza Tagizadeh.
"Such a rush and fuss over continuing nuclear program causes doubt," he said.
U.S. and other Western countries accuse Iran of developing nuclear weapons under the guise of peaceful nuclear energy program. However, Tehran denies the accusations, saying its nuclear program is aimed solely at meeting country's electricity needs.
The Times reported that the secret documents regarding rest of component of the nuclear bomb are already in the hands of the intelligence of "several Western countries, including Britain. A source at the IAEA confirmed that they were sent to the UN.
If the intelligence agencies verify the authenticity of this document it would provide almost certain proof that Iran is indeed seeking to design and build nuclear weapons, Lippman said.
European expert of Iranian origin Tagizadeh does not doubt that Iran is likely to really test a key component for building a nuclear bomb.
"It is likely that Iran conducts such tests, since technical information on their conduct is available on various Internet sites and other resources," he told Trend by telephone.
The mechanism of the first bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S. during the First World War was relatively simple. Such a bomb could be tested in a virtual image using computer stimulation, and the guarantee of such tests is 100 percent, Tagizadeh said.
T.Konyayeva, D.Khatinoglu contributed to the article.
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