Zimbabwe’s Government has signed an agreement with Iran to sell raw materials for a nuclear weapon in direct breach of international sanctions, a senior government official has told The Times.

The move by Harare and Tehran is expected to provoke international outrage because of the attempt to circumvent punitive Western sanctions imposed on the two regimes.

Gift Chimanikire, the Zimbabwean Deputy Mining Minister, said that a memorandum of understanding had been signed to export uranium to Tehran, despite warnings from Washington of serious “ramifications” if such a deal went ahead.

The minister said that Zimbabwe had struck the deal last year because sanctions imposed by the West — which banned international trade with its state-owned mining companies — had forced the cash-strapped regime to