Iran engaged in secret efforts last year to procure nuclear-related materials that spanned at least half of Germany’s states and involved attempts to advance the Islamic Republic’s chemical and biological weapons capabilities, according to newly-released German intelligence documents examined by the Jerusalem Post.
Iranian operatives targeted German manufacturers whose products could be “implemented for atomic, biological and chemical weapons in a war,” the state of Rhineland-Palatinate’s intelligence agency disclosed in its annual report. “These goods could, for example, be applied to the development of state nuclear and missile delivery programs,” the agency added.
A report by the state of Baden-Württemberg revealed that Iran is trying to acquire components necessary to manufacture nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons from Western firms. “In addition to vacuum technology, there is special interest in machine tools, high-speed cameras, and climate test control chambers,” the report said.
The state of Saarland similarly warned in a report published 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,” the report added.
Clandestine Iranian activities to obtain nuclear-related goods were reported in eight of Germany’s 16 states: Hamburg, Saarland, Baden-Württemberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Bavaria, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. Five German states have still not released their 2015 intelligence reports.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s 2015 report documented 141 Iranian attempts to secure illicit proliferation technology, compared to 83 attempts in 2014. Ninety percent of the attempts were related to the development of nuclear weapons and missile launchers, the state agency said.
The news comes on the heels of a report by Germany’s federal intelligence agency, the BfV, which found that Iran is engaging in “illegal proliferation-sensitive procurement activities in Germany … at what is, even by international standards, a quantitatively high level.”
That 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 around 950 members and supporters of Hezbollah and 300 members of Hamas.
The BfV warned last year that Iran was still trying to procure illicit technology for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, despite then-ongoing nuclear negotiations with world powers.
The deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, said earlier this month that Iran has over 100,000 missiles in Lebanon poised for the “annihilation” of Israel.
[Photo: Kremlin ]