AFP, TEHRAN: Iran's defence minister justisfied Wednesday the work of the military in the country's civil nuclear programme by asserting that the armed forces also manufactured parts for televisions.
The comments by Ali Shamkhani, carried by the student news agency ISNA, came after Iran was criticised in a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which noted that “most of the workshops used in Iran's centrifuge enrichment program are owned by military industrial organisations.”
Shamkhani said there were “thousands of manufacturers in the defence industry, and out of them only eleven make parts for the national atomic energy organisation.”
And he said the manufacturers also conduct other “non-military work”.
“We produce parts for televisions, Paykans and Prides (models of cars), and anyone can come and sign a contract with us,” he asserted.
“All this is very transparent, and there is nothing new that the IAEA inspectors would have discovered because we have declared it all ourselves,” he added.
