Iran Caught Cheating Again: Pyroprocessing for Pyromaniacs?

COMMENTARY Terrorism

Iran Caught Cheating Again: Pyroprocessing for Pyromaniacs?

May 31st, 2010 1 min read
COMMENTARY BY
James Phillips

Senior Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation

James Phillips is a senior research fellow for Middle Eastern affairs at The Heritage Foundation.

Diplomats based in Vienna leaked some interesting news on Friday: IAEA nuclear inspectors have discovered that Iran has removed equipment that was the focus of an investigation into experiments to advance Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons program.  The inspectors are concerned that the Iranians may be involved in yet another cover-up:

At issue is pyroprocessing, a procedure that can be used to purify uranium metal used in nuclear warheads.

Iran in January confirmed to the agency that it had carried out pyroprocessing experiments, prompting a request from the nuclear agency for more information — but then backtracked in March in comments at a closed meeting of the IAEA’s governing board.”

This sudden about-face by Tehran is one more example of Iran’s deceitful nuclear diplomacy, which involves repeated promises of full cooperation (to defuse momentum for new sanctions) followed by the willful withholding of information, denial, deception and outright lies.

For more publications and links, see: Iran.

This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal