Military cable for Tehran

German intelligence services contributed to the discussion of the Iranian atom

Today in Berlin there will be a meeting of foreign ministers of countries that are members of the UN Security Council with the participation of Germany. The main topic will be the Iranian nuclear program. On the eve of the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the problem must be resolved “exclusively by political and diplomatic methods” and “any forceful solution cannot be supported.” According to Mr. Lavrov, when settling the Iranian nuclear program, one should rely on the professionalism of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), while talking about the nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Germany is also not inclined to take tough measures against Iran. The federal government's arms control commissioner, Friedrich Groening, issued a statement in which he made it clear that we are not yet talking about possible sanctions against Iran, much less about “military possibilities.” Moreover, as Gernot Erler, Minister of State at the German Foreign Ministry, said, the European Union could “allow limited enrichment of uranium in Iran” if the UN Security Council gives it the green light.

Mr Erler said he was impressed by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group's proposal to allow limited uranium enrichment under certain conditions. The main one is a complete moratorium on any Iranian activity in this direction for a period of several years, as well as the implementation of comprehensive control practices. “We can think about these proposals, but only if there is a unified position in the Security Council,” Erler emphasized. He added that now it’s Iran’s turn, which should also demonstrate its will to compromise.

Shortly before the meeting in Berlin, the German intelligence services also became concerned with the Iranian issue. The Fact program on the first all-German TV channel ARD published information about a criminal network of companies that were involved in the illegal export of materials to Iran that allegedly could be used as part of the atomic program. As follows from a press release sent out by the TV channel with reference to the Potsdam prosecutor's office, this was the largest such action in recent years. More than 250 customs officials conducted searches in four dozen companies located in ten federal states of Germany. At the same time, as the report states, “evidence of illegal supplies to Iran worth millions of euros was collected.”

The detectives focused their main attention on the Berlin company Vero Handels. A representative of the Potsdam prosecutor's office, Benedikt Welfens, demonstrated one of the cargoes prepared for shipment to Iran: “This cable was intended for direct export to Iran. The recipient company operates in the military field. Thus, it can be argued that the cable was intended exclusively for military purposes." Investigators told Fakt reporters that behind the nondescript sign of the company on a quiet Berlin street there was a center where the threads of the illegally operating network converged. For a number of years it included “seven German and Russian citizens.” They obtained special equipment for use in nuclear installations, prohibited for export to Iran.

Investigators say they have been monitoring this center of illegal trade for a long time. Benedict Welfens said that high-tech goods purchased by the company in Germany and other European countries were transported to Russia to front companies in Moscow and the free trade zone in Jebel Ali in Dubai. From there, routes ran to other republics of the former USSR and further to Iran. In a similar way, it was possible to transport “components of electronic circuits, transformer equipment, control elements for the reactor crane.”

Yuri Shpakov, Berlin