[Ha'aretz] Benjamin Weinthal - During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Ali Mobaraki, an Iranian who managed Zenith Rollers Germany, a print roller company in Dusseldorf, orchestrated the transfer of 10 satellite navigation systems to Iran, with the help of his father, who owns Zenith, and a British engineer living in Germany since 1986. This type of global positioning system (GPS) is routinely found in unmanned aerial vehicles used to survey or attack enemy territory. FAKT, a German news program, reported last year that navigation systems used in Iranian drones employed by Hizbullah against Israel in the Lebanon war were manufactured by a company in the south German state of Baden-Wurttemberg. Iran's Defense Industries Organization (DIO), the country's military procurement enterprise, maintained an office in Dusseldorf until 1996-97. Der Spiegel reported in April 2007 that, "according to a high-level investigator, at least two representatives of DIO are still active on a wider front in Germany." Exiled head of the Iranian Green party Dr. Kazem Moussavizadeh told Ha'aretz that Iran's ambassador in Germany, Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh Basti, "is responsible for coordinating the secret procurement of nuclear material and logistics from Europe and for the atomic project of the Mullahs." Moussavizadeh says that "160 diplomats work for Ambassador Basti in Berlin and an additional 650 Iranians are working for the Islamic government across Germany. These are not normal Iranian diplomats; rather, they are preoccupied with military affairs and the nuclear project."
2007-11-23 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive