Iran and Libya
In August 2003, reports claimed that Khan had offered to sell nuclear weapons technology to Iran as early as 1989. The Iranian government came under intense pressure from the United States and the European Union to fully disclose its nuclear program and, finally, agreed in October 2003 to accept tougher inspections from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA reported that Iran had established a large uranium enrichment facility using gas centrifuges based on the URENCO designs, which had been obtained "from a foreign intermediary in 1987." The intermediary was not named but many diplomats and analysts pointed to Khan, who was said to have visited Iran in 1986. The Iranians turned over the names of their suppliers and the international inspectors quickly identified the Iranian gas centrifuges as Pak-1's, the model that Khan developed in the early 1980s. In December 2003, two senior staff members at Khan Labs were arrested on suspicion of having sold nuclear weapons technology to the Iranians.
Although he was not arrested, Khan was summoned for "debriefing". On 25 January 2004, Pakistani investigators reported that Khan and Mohammed Farooq, a high-ranking manager at KRL, had provided unauthorized technical assistance to Iran in the late 1980s and early 1990s, allegedly in exchange for tens of millions of dollars. Pakistan Army's former Chief of Army Staff General Mirza Aslam Beg was also implicated. The Wall Street Journal quoted U.S. government officials as saying that Khan had told the investigators that General Beg had authorized the transfers to Iran.[31]
In December 2003, Libya announced that it had agreed to abandon its undisclosed weapons of mass destruction program. Libyan government officials were quoted as saying that Libya had bought nuclear components from various black market dealers, including Pakistanis. U.S. officials who visited the Libyan uranium enrichment plants reported that the gas centrifuges used there were very similar to the Iranian machines. The IAEA officials also visited the Libyan nuclear plant where they found models of Paksat-1. Interpol arrested three Swiss nuclear scientists, who were Khan's close associates.
