Iraq says it wants world’s help to build nuclear reactor

Iraq’s foreign minister asked nuclear countries for help building a nuclear reactor Saturday, over 35 years after Israeli jets destroyed the country’s first attempt to build a nuclear program.Ibrahim al-Jaafari made the request in his speech Saturday to the UN General Assembly’s annual meeting of presidents, prime ministers and monarchs. He called for assistance “to build a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes in Iraq, to acquire this nuclear technology.” Former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein’s previous efforts to build a nuclear reactor were met with an Israeli airstrike on the Osirak nuclear facility in 1981 and years of suspicion about his nuclear intentions.While the international community initially condemned Israel for the airstrike, some 10 years later, Dick Cheney, the US secretary of defense at the time, thanked Israel for the raid, according to David Ivry, who was the head of Israel’s air force at the time.

 

Source: Iraq says it wants world’s help to build nuclear reactor | The Times of Israel

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