British campus link to Iranian nuclear centre

Gareth Walsh - timesonline.co.uk:

A BRITISH university has agreed to train engineering students from a notorious Iranian nuclear research centre in an attempt to plug a hole in its finances.

Birmingham University will this September receive the first batch of 60 students from Amirkabir University in Tehran. Amirkabir has been accused by intelligence agencies of operating as a front for the secret purchase of nuclear technology by Iran.

The scheme, devised by Birmingham to plug a predicted £800,000 deficit, may be forced to close if the United Nations imposes sanctions against Iran.

Mark Fitzpatrick, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: “Any kind of technical exchange with organisations that are involved in Iran’s nuclear or missile work would likely fall to a cut-off at a later stage.”

Posted on 08 February 2006 @ 16:56 GMT