Mugabe Secretly Agrees to Sell Uranium to Iran

“I have seen [a memorandum of
understanding] to export uranium to the
Iranians,” Zimbabwean Deputy Mining
Minister Gift Chimanikire said. The agreement, which was reportedly
signed last year, is likely to cause alarm in
Western capitals. The United States and the European Union
have imposed crippling sanctions on Iran
over its nuclear programme which Tehran
insists is for peaceful energy uses but
which they fear is intended to build a bomb. Zimbabwe is also subject to international
sanctions over its human rights record and
conduct of elections. President Robert Mugabe, who won another
five-year term in disputed polls last month,
has publicly backed Iran’s nuclear drive. During a visit by Iran’s then president,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Harare in April
2010, Mugabe said his guest should be
assured of “Zimbabwe’s continuous support
of Iran’s just cause on the nuclear issue”. Chimanikire is a member of Zimbabwe’s
opposition who is likely to be replaced now
that the election has brought an end to the
shaky coalition government. He said the uranium deal had been made
without his knowledge, and was only known
to a handful of people at the top of the
government. Despite the agreement, analysts sayi that it
was likely to be a long time before
Zimbabwe’s uranium reserves were ready
for export.