GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The Guyana government today denied allegations that it is seeking to help Iran develop its nuclear programme, despite concerns by many Western countries, including the United States.

President Bharrat Jagdeo recently ended an official visit to Teheran where he met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who agreed to assist the Caricom country map its mineral resources.

But the leader of the minority opposition Alliance for Change (AFC), Raphael Trotman, told an international new agency, the Jagdeo government could be helping Iran enrich uranium and the plan to map the mineral resources could also lead to damaging ties with Washington.

"Iran makes no secret of its search for uranium, it is doing the same in Venezuela… There are known uranium deposits in Guyana and so it doesn't take much speculation to figure out what is going on." Trotman said.

But the Presidential Advisor on Governance, Gail Texiera, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the statement by Trotman was wrong and mischievous.

“… as a small developing country we need the technological assistance to get a real sense of what are our natural resources especially ,the non-traditional ones that are there in terms of the quantity and what may be their potential in the future.

“So we have a right to do that we have a right to get that technological support from friendly countries  and countries that are willing to assist us bilaterally these studies costs a fortune and therefore if Iran is ready to help us then so be it,” said Texeira, a former government minister.

She said that Guyana has long maintained its independence and sovereignty , adding “if we have uranium in quantities that is worth exploring then that would be based on a number of investments that would come from various parts of the world not necessarily Iran”.

She said that Guyana continues to maintain a strong bilateral relationship with the United States, Cuba and any other country based on its own foreign affairs policy objectives.

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