By AP
Russian news agencies quoted the deputy foreign minister, Aleksandr Losyukov, as saying that Iran’s test of a rocket this week had raised “suspicions” about its nuclear program. Iran fired the rocket Monday from its new space center in the deserts of Semnan Province and said it wanted to launch domestically built satellites for research and telecommunications. The United States said the launch was a “troubling” show of a technology that could be used to fire long-range ballistic missiles. “It adds to general suspicions of Iran regarding its potential desire to build nuclear weapons,” said Mr. Losyukov, who is also the top Russian negotiator in the six-nation talks over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. “Long-range missiles are one of the components of such weapons. That causes concern.” Iran gave no details about the rocket, but the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti said some experts believed it could be an advanced version of the Shahab-3 ballistic missile, which has a range of 1,200 miles.
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