The News Minute| July 11, 2014| 05:00 pm IST
Iraq: In a statement to the United Nations, Iraq has said that the ISIL (Islamic Statement of Iraq and the Levant) militants have taken control of nuclear material kept for the purpose of scientific research at Mosul University. Mosul was one of the first towns to have fallen into rebel hands.
According to a report in Reuters, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, Iraq’s ambassador to the UN, told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that almost 40 kilograms of Uranium compounds had been seized from the university.
The fear is that the material can be used by the terrorist organization to develop weapons of mass destruction, Alkahim says in his letter to the Secretary General. He has also warned that the material could be smuggled out of Iraq. The UN envoy has appealed for help from the international community.
According to the news report, Iraq had acceded to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material on July 7. Under the convention, the signatories are required to protect nuclear facilities and material in peaceful domestic use, storage and transport.
The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) spokesperson Gill Tudor has said that the nuclear material seized by the ISIL will not present a significant safety, security or nuclear proliferation risk, reported the BBC.