File photo. Behrouz Mehri—AFP
The Foreign Office on Thursday rejected British media reports claiming a package with traces of uranium seized at London’s Heathrow Airport had originated from Pakistan, maintaining that the reports were “not factual.”
On Wednesday, British tabloid The Sun reported that a cargo package that arrived at Heathrow Airport via an Oman Air passenger flight from Karachi that had stopped over in Muscat, Oman. Upon arrival, the package was examined by regular airport scanners, alerting Border Force officials to analyze its contents. It was discovered that the package contained scrap metal, with uranium “embedded into metal bars.”
British police later confirmed that the detected uranium was in “very small” quantity and did not pose any risk to the public. According to The Sun, the package was being shipped to an Iranian-linked firm in the U.K. Police said they had not made any arrests as yet, adding that officers were continuing to work with partner agencies to “fully investigate this matter.”
Responding to media queries on the shipment, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that they had seen the media reports. “We are confident that the reports are not factual,” she said, adding that U.K. authorities had not officially shared any information with Pakistan.
According to daily Dawn, Pakistani officials maintained the shipment did not originate in Pakistan. Sharing fears that Pakistan was being deliberately drawn into the issue, they said the situation would have raised questions about Pakistan’s export control mechanisms and security of its radioactive material.
Uranium is a radioactive metal that naturally occurs in rocks but can have nuclear-related uses after it has been refined. Low-refined uranium can be used to produce fuel for commercial nuclear power plants, while highly enriched uranium with a purity of 20 percent or more is used in research reactors. Weapons-grade uranium is 90 percent enriched or more.