I haven’t seen anyone else talking about this yet, so I figured I’d at least link to it. I really can’t make heads or tails of it yet, myself.

China has recently given the International Atomic Energy Agency intelligence about Iran’s nuclear program despite Beijing’s opposition to harsh U.N. Security Council sanctions on Tehran, according to diplomats familiar with the matter. [...]

A Chinese decision to provide information for use in the agency’s attempts to probe Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program would appear to reflect growing international unease about how honest the Islamic republic has been in denying it ever tried to make such arms. [...]

The diplomats — who demanded anonymity because their information was confidential — attributed a generally increased flow of information to the U.N. nuclear watchdog to concern sparked by a February multimedia presentation by the agency to its 35 IAEA board members, which described intelligence previously forwarded by member states on Iran’s alleged clandestine nuclear arms program.

There’s a bit more background information in the story, but given the confidential nature of the story, I’m surprised that it has come out at all.

Updates as they become available.

Tags: anonymity, atomic energy agency, beijing, board members, chinese decision, diplomats, iaea, international atomic energy, international atomic energy agency, islamic republic, member states, multimedia presentation, nuclear arms program, nuclear program, nuclear weapons program, sanctions, security council, tehran, unease, watchdog

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 3:27 PM and is filed under China, Foreign Policy, Iran. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.