In what appears to be a further twist in the already murky tale of nuclear black-marketing, Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of Pakistan's nuclear programme has admitted that he gave centrifuges to Iran.
Disclosing this Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said,” He has given centrifuges to Iran, but the government was in no way involved in this."
Khan, had admitted to smuggling nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya, but the Pakistan government had not given specifics as to what he supplied. After the scandal of nuclear black-marketing broke out last year, Khan has been under virtual house arrest in Islamabad. Pakistan has refused to allow experts from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to question him.
Meanwhile, Iran continues to insist that it intends to use the enriched Uranium only as a fuel in power stations, but Washington refuses to buy this argument and says Iran is making fuel for atomic warheads.
Centrifuges are vital to purify uranium for use as fuel for nuclear power plants or weapons. Under pressure from Britain, France and Germany, Iran has frozen most of its enrichment program as a confidence-building measure.
