Zimbabwe denies signing uranium deal with Iran

Deputy mining minister says African country has no capacity to handle the mineral, contradicts earlier statements about agreement

Zimbabwe on Saturday denied reports in the British newspaper The Times that the Mugabe government signed a deal with Iran to provide raw material needed for the development of a nuclear weapon,

“We have no capacity to handle uranium as a country, and besides we don’t even know the quantity of uranium deposits viable for mining,” Deputy Mining Minister Gift Chimanikire told Bloomberg.

Chimanikire is the Zimbabwean official quoted in The Times report making contradicting statements earlier Saturday. The minister told the British newspaper that a memorandum of understanding was signed between the two countries, despite warnings in 2011 by the United States of “ramifications for countries that decline to observe their international obligations.” Chimanikire added that only a handful of people at the top of the African country’s government knew about the deal.

The deal for the sale on uranium deposits, according to The Times, was signed last year and is in direct contravention of international sanctions imposed on both Tehran — for its nuclear ambitions — and the Mugabe government — for its human rights abuses. Secret negotiations between the two countries were ongoing for more than two years, according to the report.

Robert Mugabe — Zimbabwe’s long-time president, who recently won a seventh term in office, albeit contested — has described Tehran’s quest for nuclear power as a “just cause.” The international community suspects that Iran is building a nuclear bomb, despite the Islamic Republic’s claims that its program is for domestic purposes only.

In 2010, Mugabe prompted speculation of the deal when he welcomed then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Zimbabwe.

Chimanikire told The Times that Western sanctions, which include the ban of international trade with Zimbabwe’s state-owned mining companies, prompted Zimbabwe to look elsewhere. “Mining is Zimbabwe’s ticket,” he said.

The country’s uranium reserves, estimated at 45,000 tons, are said to be mixed with other minerals and groundwater, making extraction costly; an assessment that has led analysts mentioned in the report to claim that it could take a long time before the minerals are ready for export and that Zimbabwe was simply trying to keep its options open in the meantime.