Iran aims to further bolster its nuclear arsenal, German intelligence agency finds

Iran aims to further bolster its nuclear arsenal, German intelligence agency finds
April 27, 2021, 9:00 am

This file handout satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies on January 28, 2020, shows an overview of Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, south of the capital Tehran. (AFP)

Iran was strengthening its nuclear arsenal in 2020 by bolstering its weapons production whilst misleading the world by claiming the nature of their activities were peaceful, a new German intelligence report found.

Germany’s government security agency, the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, issued the report, which has been translated from German by The Washington Free Beacon, news platform.

The study stated that Iran had been working to expand its “conventional arsenal of weapons through the production or constant modernization of weapons of mass destruction.”

The report by Germany’s equivalent of the FBI indicated that Tehran looked to establish relations with German contacts that were involved in the high-tech field, “in order to obtain the necessary know-how and corresponding components,” in an effort to skirt the sanctions imposed on them and fulfil their nuclear production goals.

Iran has claimed that the nature of its nuclear program is peaceful and has demanded that the US lift the reimposed sanctions which were enforced after former president Donald Trump left the nuclear deal in 2015, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that the sequencing of the US’s return to the accord and Tehran implementing full compliance with its terms will not involve a “step by step format and will be in line with the Islamic Republic’s demands”, according to Bloomberg.

Crucial multilateral talks involving both countries are taking place in Vienna this week to address this.

US President Biden has expressed that he might be willing to relax the sanctions imposed on Tehran as part of a new nuclear deal, but has not yet taken action to do so. Iran has long been skirting sanctions to obtain the fuel needed for its nuclear program and has previously run operations against the sanctions imposed on them for its oil trade, a key revenue source for the country, Free Beacon reported.

Iran last week began enriching uranium to 60 percent purity in an effort to show its technical capacity, saying that the move was reversible, Reuters reported last week. Iran was previously enriching uranium to 20 percent purity and the 2015 nuclear deal had capped Tehran’s enrichment level to 3.67 percent.

The investigation concluded that Germany remained the focus of “intelligence activities,” for Iran.

“Information from foreign and security policy as well as business and science,” is applicable to other nations the report suggested, noting that Syria, North Korea and Pakistan had been engaging in similar activities.