A New Axis of Ugly: Iran, North Korea, Burma, Pariah Nation Missile and Support Club
People’s Daily Online:”Myanmar and Iran will work to promote economic cooperation through the establishment of bilateral consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries, said the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar Friday.
The memorandum of understanding on the establishment was reached during a three-day visit to Myanmar by Iranian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Ali Fathollahi from Tuesday to Thursday, the report said.”
From The Economist:
“RUMOURS that Myanmar is the next recruit to a shady nuclear and missile network that seems to link North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Syria and possibly others swirl intermittently. The missile link is clearest: in all these cases, including Myanmar’s, North Korea has either sold missiles or helped them build their own. But aside from an agreement in principle in 2007 for Russia to build a small research reactor for Myanmar, there has been little hard evidence of its junta’s nuclear ambitions. The recent defection of a former major in the Burmese army, Sai Thein Win, however, and the documents and photographs he brought with him, appear to confirm Myanmar’s intent, if not yet capacity, to enrich uranium and eventually build a bomb.
[….]
All this and other evidence, Mr Kelley’s report concludes, lead to the inescapable conclusion that such work is “for nuclear weapons and not civilian use or nuclear power”. An earlier report, published in January by the Institute for Science and International Security, an independent Washington-based outfit, debunked some of the wilder rumours about Myanmar’s nuclear quest. But it also concluded that foreign companies should treat inquiries from Myanmar no differently from “those from Iran, Pakistan or Syria”. All are known purchasers of illicit nuclear equipment.”