Iraq turns to China for agreement on peaceful nuclear energy use

Shafaq News/ On Tuesday, Iraq decided to enhance the country's peaceful nuclear energy capabilities by signing agreements with China.

The Prime Minister's media office confirmed that the Cabinet held its regular session and voted to authorize the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, also head of the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, to negotiate and sign a cooperation agreement between the governments of Iraq and China.

The agreement will focus on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, while The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will prepare the necessary authorization document and submit it to the Cabinet Secretariat for final approval and signature by the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani stated last year that Iraq was among the first countries to seek membership in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and to commit to its treaties, emphasizing Iraq’s efforts to establish nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes, believing that nuclear energy should be a source of prosperity, not a means for developing deadly weapons.

Iraq previously had three nuclear reactors in the al-Tuwaitha area south of Baghdad. One of these reactors was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in 1981, while the other two were destroyed by U.S. aircraft during the Gulf War in 1991, following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. These sites were used by the previous regime for the production of internationally banned weapons.