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Iran's Car Industry - A Big Sanctions Buster

(Forbes) Mark Dubowitz and Emanuele Ottolenghi - Iran is exploiting industrial sectors that are still free of sanctions to procure sensitive technology needed to complete its dash to a nuclear bomb. One such sector is Iran's automotive industry, which accounts for 10% of Iranian GDP. Both technology and raw materials for car production can be dual-use. Increasingly, it appears that Iranian carmakers' vast overseas procurement network is being used to supply the nuclear and missile programs. The car industry is an avenue for profit to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, religious foundations, and political elite, who remain the car industry's main shareholders, and who channel the revenues to finance the regime's proliferation activities. A recent Washington Post investigation of MCS International showed how from 2003 to 2011, this Iranian-owned factory in Germany produced gas cylinders for hybrid cars. But the factory also offered access to dual-use technology for Iran's nuclear designs, including carbon fiber and hardened steel - key components of Iran's second-generation nuclear enrichment centrifuges. It also had sophisticated machinery in its inventory which can be used to manufacture centrifuges. Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Mark Dubowitz is the executive director.
2013-05-17 00:00:00
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