Wikileaks: Saudi officials suspect Iran shipped nuclear equipment to Sudan
Saudi diplomats believed Iran shipped advanced nuclear equipment including centrifuges to Sudan back in 2001, Wikileaks documents show.
In a document , Saudi Arabia embassy in Sudanese capital Khartoum states that embassy sources say Iranian containers arrived 鈥渢his week鈥� at Khartoum airport containing 鈥渟ensitive technical equipment in the form of fast centrifuges enriching Uranium.鈥�
The short letter which is dated May 2001 and marked 鈥渢op secret鈥� adds that a second shipment is expected to arrive 鈥渢his week.鈥�
The document does not provide any name, or any evidence of the shipment. It does not also give out any details on how the equipment might have been shipped, or what Sudan planned to do with it.
Iran has been a . According to recent聽Wikileaks聽documents, Saudi Arabia reported anxiously on Iran's military aid to Sudan, but there are no known reports of information about Iran sending nuclear equipment to Sudan, a country that has no known nuclear activities.
Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia have reacted to the Wikileaks cable on Tehran鈥檚 alleged nuclear equipment shipment to Sudan.
Last week Wikileaks released more than 60,000 which it says are Saudi foreign ministry papers.聽The website says it is planning to release half a million Saudi documents in total.
After the documents were released, Saudi Arabia聽聽not to聽distribute "documents that might be faked."
Riyadh has previously expressed its concern over Iran鈥檚 nuclear program and repeatedly signaled its disagreement with the US efforts to seek a diplomatic solution on this matter.
According to previous Wikileaks documents, Riyadh repeatedly encouraged the US to 鈥溾�� by launching military action against Iran and destroying Iran鈥檚 nuclear facilities.
On another note, in early June former officials of Israel and Saudi Arabia revealed that two countries have held several secret meetings on how to deal with Iran.
Iran and P5+1 group (China, Russia, France, Britain, and the United States plus Germany) are engaged in intense nuclear talks as the June 30 deadline for sealing a final nuclear deal approaches.
The negotiations have hit an impasse聽partly over the question of how much access the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors should have to Iranian military sites.
Iran and Western officials say they are .
