by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Earlier this year, Czech Republic thwarted attempted Iranian purchase of large shipment of sensitive technology usable for nuclear enrichment after false documents raised suspicions • Incident adds to Western concerns about whether Iran can be trusted.
The Czech Republic blocked an attempted
purchase by Iran this year of a large shipment of sensitive technology
usable for nuclear enrichment after false documentation raised
suspicions, U.N. experts and Western sources said.
The incident could add to Western concerns
about whether Iran can be trusted to adhere to a nuclear deal being
negotiated with world powers under which it would curb sensitive nuclear
work in exchange for sanctions relief.
The negotiators are trying to reach a deal by
the end of June after hammering out a preliminary agreement on April 2,
with Iran committing to reduce the number of centrifuges it operates and
agreeing to other long-term nuclear limitations.
Some details of the attempted purchase were
described in the latest annual report of an expert panel for the United
Nations Security Council's Iran sanctions committee, which has been seen
by Reuters.
The panel said that in January Iran attempted
to buy compressors -- which have nuclear and non-nuclear applications --
made by the U.S.-owned company Howden CKD Compressors.
A Czech state official and a Western diplomat
familiar with the case confirmed to Reuters that Iran had attempted to
buy the shipment from Howden CKD in the Czech Republic, and that Czech
authorities had acted to block the deal.
It was not clear if any intermediaries were involved in the attempt to acquire the machinery.
There was no suggestion that Howden CKD itself
was involved in any wrongdoing. Officials at Prague-based Howden
declined to comment on the attempted purchase.
The U.N. panel, which monitors compliance with
the U.N. sanctions regime, said there had been a "false end user"
stated for the order.
"The procurer and transport company involved
in the deal had provided false documentation in order to hide the
origins, movement and destination of the consignment with the intention
of bypassing export controls and sanctions," it added.
The report offered no further details about
the attempted transaction. Iran's U.N. mission did not respond to a
query about the report.
The Czech state official said the party
seeking the compressors had claimed the machinery was needed for a
compressor station, such as the kind used to transport natural gas from
one relay station to another.
The official declined to say exactly how the
transaction was stopped, provide specifications of the compressors or
confirm the intended purchaser. However, he made clear it was the Czech
authorities who halted the deal
The official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said the total value of the contract would have been about
1.5 billion Czech koruna ($61 million).
This was a huge amount for the company
concerned, the previously named CKD Kompresory, a leading supplier of
multi-stage centrifugal compressors to the oil and gas, petrochemical
and other industries.
The firm was acquired by Colfax Corp. of the
United States in 2013 for $69.4 million. A spokesman for Colfax declined
to comment.
The United States and its Western allies say
Iran continues to try to skirt international sanctions on its atomic and
missile programs even while negotiating the nuclear deal.
The U.N. panel of experts also noted in its
report that Britain informed it of an active Iranian nuclear procurement
network linked to blacklisted firms.
While compressors have non-nuclear
applications in the oil and gas industry, they also have nuclear uses,
including in centrifuge cascades. Centrifuges purify uranium gas fed
into them for use as fuel in nuclear reactors or weapons, if purified to
levels of around 90% of the fissile isotope uranium-235.
"Such compressors can be used to extract
enriched uranium directly from the cascades," Olli Heinonen, former
deputy director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a
nuclear expert currently at Harvard University, told Reuters.
"In particular, they are useful when working
with higher enrichment such as 20% enriched uranium," he said, adding
that precise specifications of the compressors in question would be
necessary to make a definitive assessment.
Iran has frozen production of 20% enriched
uranium, a move that Western officials cite as one of the most important
curbs on Iranian nuclear activities under an interim agreement in 2013.
Iran rejects allegations by Western powers and
their allies that it is seeking the capability to produce atomic
weapons and says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
The IAEA and the United States have said repeatedly that Iran has adhered to the terms of the 2013 interim deal.
Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=25463
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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