British campus link to Iranian nuclear centre

In a controversial decision, a British University has agreed to train engineering students from a notorious Iranian nuclear research center in an attempt to plug a hole in its finances, a media report said today.

According to the report in The Sunday Times, Birmingham University will receive the first batch of 60 students this September 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 the Univeristy to plug an 800,000 pounds deficit, may be forced to close if the United Nations imposes sanctions against Iran, the report said.

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

According to the report, the Iranian University has helped develop technology used in the manufacture of nuclear warheads, and its engineers are carrying out research into missile guidance systems.

The report said experts have been warned by a number of governments against trading with the University because goods could be used in any nuclear weapons programme.

The German government is reported to have named it on a warning list sent to exporters in 2002. The following year the Australian defence minister blocked the sale of a mass spectrometer to Amirkabir.