One year after it signed the nuclear deal, Iran is still attempting to secretly procure illicit nuclear technology and equipment, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency revealed last week.
In its 317-page annual report, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, known by its German acronym BfV, said that Iran is engaging in “illegal proliferation-sensitive procurement activities in Germany … at what is, even by international standards, a quantitatively high level.”
The report noted “a further increase in the already considerable procurement efforts in connection with Iran’s ambitious missile technology program which could, among other things, potentially serve to deliver nuclear weapons. Against this backdrop it is safe to expect that Iran will continue it sensitive procurement activities in Germany using clandestine methods to achieve its objectives.”
It also identified over 1,000 associates of Iran-backed terrorist groups that live in Germany, including about 950 members and supporters of Hezbollah and 300 members of Hamas.
“The followers of Islamist-terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah striving for the abolition of the Jewish State of Israel are focused on their regions of origin, which is where they commit most of their terrorist acts of violence,” the report stated.
The report was emphasized by German Chancellor Angela Merkel during her address to the German parliament on Thursday.
“Iran continued unabated to develop its rocket program in conflict with the relevant provisions of the UN Security Council,” Merkel told lawmakers. She added that the anti-missile system NATO deployed in Romania and the system it planned to deploy in Poland were “developed purely for defense” in response to Iran’s illicit military rocket program.
The BfV’s recent intelligence report echoes one that it issued last year, when it warned that Iran was still trying to procure illicit technology for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, despite then-ongoing nuclear negotiations with world powers.
[Photo: World Economic Forum / flickr]