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Wikileaks: Saudi officials suspect Iran shipped nuclear equipment to Sudan

Iran sent nuclear equipment to Sudan, a classified Saudi memo released by WikiLeaks says. There have been no previous reports of Iran sending nuclear equipment to Sudan.

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Hasan Jamali/AP/File
A man walks past portraits of Saudi leaders at the Tadawul Saudi Stock Exchange, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 15, 2015.

Saudi diplomats believed Iran shipped advanced nuclear equipment including centrifuges to Sudan back in 2001, Wikileaks documents show.

In a document posted on Wikileaks, Saudi Arabia embassy in Sudanese capital Khartoum states that embassy sources say Iranian containers arrived “this week” at Khartoum airport containing “sensitive technical equipment in the form of fast centrifuges enriching Uranium.”

The short letter which is dated May 2001 and marked “top secret” adds that a second shipment is expected to arrive “this week.”

The document does not provide any name, or any evidence of the shipment. It does not also give out any details on how the equipment might have been shipped, or what Sudan planned to do with it.

Iran has been a major supplier of arms to Sudan. According to recent Wikileaks documents, Saudi Arabia reported anxiously on Iran's military aid to Sudan, but there are no known reports of information about Iran sending nuclear equipment to Sudan, a country that has no known nuclear activities.

Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia have reacted to the Wikileaks cable on Tehran’s alleged nuclear equipment shipment to Sudan.

Last week Wikileaks released more than 60,000 cables and documents which it says are Saudi foreign ministry papers. The website says it is planning to release half a million Saudi documents in total.

After the documents were released, Saudi Arabia warned its citizens not to distribute "documents that might be faked."

Riyadh has previously expressed its concern over Iran’s nuclear program and repeatedly signaled its disagreement with the US efforts to seek a diplomatic solution on this matter.

According to previous Wikileaks documents, Riyadh repeatedly encouraged the US to “cut off the head of the snake” by launching military action against Iran and destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities.

On another note, in early June former officials of Israel and Saudi Arabia revealed that two countries have held several secret meetings on how to deal with Iran.

Iran and P5+1 group (China, Russia, France, Britain, and the United States plus Germany) are engaged in intense nuclear talks as the June 30 deadline for sealing a final nuclear deal approaches.

The negotiations have hit an impasse partly over the question of how much access the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors should have to Iranian military sites.

Iran and Western officials say they are willing to extend the deadline.

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