Iran bought 300 tons of uranium from Niger for illicit nuke weapon program - report

The Islamic Republic of Iran purchased 300 tons of refined uranium from Niger in a secret deal that is part of Tehran’s drive to amass the resources for the construction of a nuclear weapons device.

The London-based independent news organization Iran International published a report in early June about Iran’s clandestine negotiations with Niger’s Junta government.

Banafsheh Zand, an Iranian-American journalist, wrote that the deal was first reported by the France-based news organization Africa Intelligence in late April. Iran reached an agreement with Niger to purchase 300 tons of yellowcake in exchange for the delivery of drones and surface-to-air missiles to Niger, wrote Iran International.

Yellowcake is a term used to describe concentrated uranium, a yellow-looking powder used to manufacture weapons-grade uranium for atomic weapons. Niger’s military regime denied the covert agreement with Tehran.

According to Iran International, the French daily newspaper Le Monde confirmed the secret deal between Iran and Niger. The mine in Arlit, Niger, where the uranium is being extracted, is owned by the French company Orano.

Mohammad Eslami, the director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told journalists after the publication of the Le Monde article: “You must consider the source of the news. For the first time ever, we announced the news of the Islamic Republic’s modest nuclear program to the ears of people in all corners of the world in a completely professional manner.”

 The disclosure about the Iran-Niger uranium deal coincides with former defense minister Avigdor Liberman declaring that Iran seeks a nuclear Holocaust targeting the lone Jewish state.

Liberman told Army Radio last week that  Iran is “planning a Holocaust for us in the next two years.”

He continued, “We are in the midst of an Iranian extermination program,” the head of the Yisrael Beytenu party chairman said. Liberman noted, “Israel will be attacked to destroy it from several fronts with tens of thousands of missiles at the same time. They are planning a holocaust for us in the next two years.”

Iran rebuked by IAEA members

Member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rebuked Iran on Wednesday for its lack of cooperation with agency inspectors.  On Friday, the British, French, and German governments forwarded a letter to the United Nations Security Council outlining Iran’s violations of the 2015 nuclear deal. However, the European countries and the US have not triggered the “snap back” UN sanctions against Tehran for its ongoing violations of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The Trump administration withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal, in 2018 .  Trump called it a “horrible deal” that does not permanently stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The JCPOA expires on October 18, 2025.

According to a 2019 Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) report, “What is certain is that in December 2015, according to the Russian Tass news agency, Russia provided Iran with 200 tons of yellowcake.” The President of MEMRI, Yigal Carmon, and the organization’s Iran expert,  Ayelet Savyon, wrote at the time “While the U.S. protests Iran's minor breach, announced this week, of the 300 kg limit on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium set in the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, the location of 8.5 tons of Iranian-enriched uranium that Iran ostensibly shipped to its ally Russia that year remains completely unknown.”

Iran’s regime is moving rapidly toward the production of 90% weapons-grade levels of uranium. The IAEA reported in May that Iran enriched up to 60% uranium.

Separately but related, the pro-Iran regime academic Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who served as spokesman for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the international community (2003-2005) and helped the Islamic Republic of Iran secure the right to enrich uranium during negotiations with the Europeans, is under fire for appearing at the  Hamburg-based  Körber Foundation.

The Jerusalem Post reported last month that Iranian-Americans and German-Iranians are calling on Princeton University to fire Mousavian from his academic post because of his alleged role in the assassinations of over 20 Iranian dissidents during the 1990s in Europe. Mousavian remains a supporter of the US and German-designated terrorist movements, Hamas and Hezbollah. He endorsed the Iranian regime fatwa to murder the British-American writer Salman Rushdie. Mousavian previously declined to answer Post queries.

Lawdan Bazargan, the Iranian-American human rights activist and expert on the Islamic Republic, who oversees the campaign Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists (AAIRIA), took to X on Saturday to blast the Körber Foundation for hosting Mousavian. She wrote, “Shame on @KoerberIP for promoting Hossein Mousavian, a known terrorist with blood on his hands from his involvement in Iranian human rights abuses. Highlighting such a figure under the guise of diplomacy is a disgrace. Instead of distancing themselves from their dark Nazi past, @KoerberIP continues to promote human rights abusers, dictators, and radical fundamentalists.”

Shame on @KoerberIP for promoting Hossein Mousavian, a known terrorist with blood on his hands from his involvement in Iranian human rights abuses. Highlighting such a figure under the guise of diplomacy is a disgrace. Instead of distancing themselves from their dark Nazi past,… https://t.co/3fnzxbEkZ0

— Lawdan Bazargan (@LawdanBazargan) June 8, 2024

The former Nazi, Kurt A. Körber, who advanced Hitler’s destruction of European Jewry and war aims, established his foundation after the war.  The Körber Foundation is energetically working to promote Mousavian in Germany with the Table.Briefings, a Berlin-based company. According to a Table.Briefings X post, Mousavian spoke to Jonathan Lehrer from Körber about his advocacy for “negotiations with Tehran and not further sanctions.”

Körber spokesman Julian Claaßen told Iran International, “Dr. Hossein Mousavian was invited to background discussions at Körber-Stiftung in Berlin and Hamburg. Since its inception, Körber-Stiftung has been committed to dialogue, in line with the motto of our founder Kurt A. Körber, "Talking to each other, not about each other." Our aim is to explore the scope for political action and to contribute to international understanding, especially in times of acute crisis and conflict.”

Claaßen said Körber will not comment on Mousavian’s alleged antisemitism, support of Hamas and Hezbollah, endorsement of the fatwa to assassinate Rushdie, and his reported role in the killing spree of over 20 Iranian dissidents. Claaßen said,” We do not comment on political statements made by our guests.” 

Mousavian largely avoids criticism of Iran’s regime and refuses to reprimand the Islamic Republic for its slaughter of Iranians during the “Women, Life Freedom” movement protests in Iran.  Iran’s morality police tortured and murdered the young Iranian-Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini,, in September, 2022 for failing to properly wear her hijab. The murder of Amini sparked nationwide demonstrations—Women, Life, Freedom—against the existence of the Islamic Republic.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Rabbi Abraham Cooper also slammed Mousavian’s antisemitism because Mousavian compared Israel with Nazi Germany on his X feed last year after Hamas massacred 1,200 people, including the German-Israeli woman Shani Louk.