by Meira Svirsky
Post-deal, Iran has solicited advanced nuclear, chemical, biological and missile-related technology, from 16 German states.
Since
signing the nuclear agreement with the world’s powers, it has been
revealed that Iran has tried illegally to obtain nuclear, chemical,
biological and missile-related technology to advance all of these
programs for the Islamic Republic.
In an exclusive report
based on the examination of intelligence data from 16 German states,
the Jerusalem Post details new information on Iran’s wide range of
activities to procure these materials.
The Post
reveals, in just one example, “The state of Saarland wrote in its 2015
intelligence report released last month that ‘so-called danger states,
for example, Iran and North Korea, make efforts to obtain technology for
atomic, biological or chemical weapons.’ Iran also seeks ‘missile
delivery systems as well as goods and know-how for proliferation.’”
An
intelligence report released in June by the Rhineland-Palatinate state
shows that “Iran was one of the foreign countries that targeted ‘German
companies’ in the state whose equipment could be ‘implemented for
atomic, biological and chemical weapons in a war.’”
The
North Rhine-Westphalia state’s domestic intelligence report similarly
states that Iran made 83 attempts to obtain illicit technology for
weapons proliferation in 2014 and 141 attempts in 2015. The report notes
that 90% of the attempted acquisitions were for the development of
nuclear-weapon devices and missile launchers.
The
years in question were the same years that Iran and the world powers
were engaged in prolonged negotiations to curtail Iran’s nuclear weapons
program and its accompanying missile development program. In exchange
for the Islamic Republic’s demilitarization, the world agreed to lift
financial sanctions that had crippled Iran’s economy.
Reacting to the news of Iran’s illegal procurement attempts, German Chancellor Angela Merkel angrily told the German parliament
that the development of Iran’s missile program is “in clear
contradiction to the relevant provisions of UN Security Council
[resolutions].”
The
revelations should come as no surprise to those who have monitored
Iran’s blatant duplicity before, during and after the negotiations that
resulted in the nuclear agreement made last summer.
While
Iran insisted all along that its nuclear program was for “peaceful
purposes,” evidence to the contrary was willfully ignored by the world
powers as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency.
While negotiations were being carried out, secret military sites housing nuclear enrichment equipment and well as specific scientists were being revealed
through satellite images as well as other solid documentation. Previous
secret sites had also been revealed, to which Iran had admitted.
Other known sites were exposed where evidence of a nuclear weapons program were erased before IAEA inspectors arrived.
The agreement itself contained two key passages that were (and still are) being kept secret. The two passages have to do with inspections of critical military installations.
The
first concerns the inspection of the Parchin, which has been under
suspicion for years for conducting research on nuclear weapons and
long-range ballistic missiles. The second centers on separate
negotiations to resolve the issue of possible military dimensions (PMD)
of Iran’s nuclear program.
In
addition, in a move that defied even a modicum of any semblance of
reality, it was further revealed that as per the above secret passages,
the IAEA had agreed to let Iran use its own inspectors to take samples from its sites suspected of military development of nuclear weapons.
One
of the conditions of the nuclear agreement was that Iran would refrain
from developing its missile program for eight years. Shortly after the
agreement was made, which never came to a vote in Congress due to a filibuster by Democrats,
Iran tested its first in a series of ballistic missiles (weapons that
are used almost exclusively to deliver a nuclear warhead).
In a shocking turn around, the Obama administration told the American public that the missile test did not violate the nuclear deal but was “altogether separate from the nuclear agreement Iran reached with the rest of the world.”
After
the test, the most criticism the U.S. could muster was to say that
there were “strong indications” that the test violated United Nations
Security Council resolution 1929 which forbids Iran from developing and
testing such missiles.
Not surprisingly, by the end of 2015, the IAEA closed the file on any possible military dimensions of the Iran’s nuclear program, completely letting Iran off the hook.
Subsequent missile testing – including one ballistic missile with the words written in Hebrew “Israel should be wiped out” – have elicited similar flaccid responses.
The
belligerence, non-compliance and blatant provocation by the Islamic
Republic of Iran taken in conjunction with their attempts to illicitly
procure the most sophisticated chemical, biological and nuclear
technology should make the world pause.
Enabling
the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism with billions of dollars
in sanctions relief – as well as lucrative business deals -- certainly
puts the entire world on a crash course with disaster.
Meira Svirsky
Source: http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/irans-illegal-attempts-buy-chemical-weapons-technology
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Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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