Atomic Threat

Iran may have tested a key component of atomic bombs as recently as 2007 according to diplomats – a claim that undermines Iran’s insistence its nuclear development is civilian. “The diplomats commented on a Times of London report about what it called a confidential Iranian technical document describing a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the part of a nuclear warhead that sets off an explosion. The Times, diplomats and analysts reached by Reuters said such a device had no conventional military or civilian use. In Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told the semi-official Fars news agency the report was ‘baseless … Such statements are not worthy of attention. These reports … are intended to put political and psychological pressure on Iran.’”