Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner claimed Monday afternoon at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City that in 2010, the Obama administration tried to convince the Argentinians "to provide the Islamic Republic of Iran with nuclear fuel," reported Mediaite.
Kirchner said that two years into Obama's first term, his administration sent Gary Samore, former White House Coordinator for Arms Control and Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Argentina to persuade the nation to provide Iran with nuclear fuel, which is a key component of nuclear weapons.
Kirchner's full remarks are as follows, per the Argentine president's official website:
"In 2010 we were visited in Argentina by Gary Samore, at that time the White House's top advisor in nuclear issues. He came to see us in Argentina with a mission, with an objective: under the control of IAEA, the international organization in the field of weapons control and nuclear regulation, Argentina had supplied in the year 1987, during the first democratic government, the nuclear fuel for the reactor known as "Teheran". Gary Samore had explained to our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Héctor Timerman, that negotiations were underway for the Islamic Republic of Iran to cease with its uranium enrichment activities or to do it to a lesser extent but Iran claimed that it needed to enrich this Teheran nuclear reactor and this was hindering negotiations. They came to ask us, Argentines, to provide the Islamic Republic of Iran with nuclear fuel. Rohani was not in office yet. It was Ahmadinejad's administration and negotiations had already started."
The allegations are troubling in that they come after the Obama administration and five other world powers recently signed a nuclear deal with Iran that aims to limit Tehran's ability to develop nuclear weapons. At the core of the agreement are restrictions on the amount of nuclear fuel that Iran can keep for the next 15 years – restrictions that would force Iran to reduce its stockpile of uranium by 98 percent, according to The New York Times. It's not clear why the U.S. would be attempting to secretly enable Iran to enrich nuclear fuel just five years ago.
Kirchner went on to say at the U.N. that when Samore was asked to provide the request in writing, all communications immediately ceased and Samore disappeared.
Kirchner continued: "...Argentina's contribution to this negotiation process...was impossible. [However] The Minister of Foreign Affairs came to see me in my office, and I remember this very clearly, and I said that if this request were made in writing and signed, we could, after all, cooperate."
