European intelligence agencies report that Iran has been trying to acquire technology needed to facilitate manufacture of nuclear weapons. From the Jerusalem Post:
A damning new report authored by the Netherland’s General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) asserts that the Islamic Republic of Iran attempted to obtain technology in 2020 for weapons of mass destruction.
The Dutch intelligence document, which was published in April, says the security service “investigated networks that tried to obtain the knowledge and materials to develop weapons of mass destruction. Multiple acquisition attempts have been frustrated by the intervention of the services.”
It isn’t only the mullahs, apparently:
According to the Dutch report, “The joint Counter-Proliferation Unit [UCP] of the AIVD and the MIVD [the country’s Military Intelligence and Security Service] is investigating how countries try to obtain the knowledge and goods they need to make weapons of mass destruction. Countries such as Syria, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea also tried to acquire such goods and technology in Europe and the Netherlands last year.”
As I understand this report, Iran uses front organizations to make technology purchases on its behalf, and the role of the intelligence agencies, at least in part, is to trace corporate connections and block such efforts.
Apparently there have been similar reports from other European agencies over the past year:
The Jerusalem Post reported last month that the Bavarian state intelligence agency in Germany said: “Proliferation-relevant states like Iran, North Korea, Syria and Pakistan are making efforts to expand their conventional arsenal of weapons through the production or constant modernization of weapons of mass destruction.”
Also in April, the Post reported that Sweden’s Security Service disclosed in its 2020 intelligence report that the Islamic Republic of Iran sought Swedish technology for its nuclear weapons program.
According to the Swedish intelligence document, “Iran also conducts industrial espionage, which is mainly targeted against Swedish hi-tech industry and Swedish products, which can be used in nuclear weapons programs. Iran is investing heavy resources in this area and some of the resources are used in Sweden.”
This seems like relevant information. Maybe these reports have been featured prominently by American news sources, and I missed them. The Post says, optimistically:
[T]he findings from the three European intelligence agencies in 2021 contradict Khamenei’s statement [that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons] and are likely to fuel a new debate about whether the US should rejoin the heavily criticized 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action….
I doubt that. With a Democratic president in office, the American press has gone on a four-year-long snooze.
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