The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) concluded two days of large-scale missile exercises with the test-firing of two Ghadr-H ballistic missiles on March 9. The missiles were launched from the Eastern Alborz Mountains in Iran at targets 1,400 km away on the Makran coast. On March 8, the IRGC test-fired a number of missiles during military exercises in the Qom desert, including the Shahab-1, Shahab-2, Ghadr-H, and Ghadr-F missiles.
News Briefs
March 7, 2016
The U.S. Commerce Department has placed heightened export restrictions on the Chinese technology company ZTE Corporation. ZTE, one of China's largest and most prominent tech firms, sold U.S.-origin items to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions and planned to continue to do so. The Commerce Depatment released two internal ZTE documents to support its action against the company. In one of the documents from 2011, ZTE reveals that it has ongoing projects in "all five major [U.S.] embargoed countries - Iran, Sudan, North Korea, Syria, and Cuba," referring to the Iran project as its "biggest risk." In the second document, the company lays out a proposal to evade U.S. export controls using a network of shell companies, thereby allowing it to re-export controlled items to Iran. The heightened controls on ZTE require American companies to obtain a license before selling products to the firm.
-- New York Times
March 1, 2016
Erdal Kuyumcu, the head of a New York-based metallurgical company, has been arrested on charges of illegally exporting a specialized powder to Iran, the Justice Department announced on March 1. Kuyumcu, the CEO of Global Metallurgy LLC, was accused of exporting more than a thousand pounds of cobalt-nickel metallic powder to Iran via Turkey without an export license. The metallic powder has aerospace, missile production, and nuclear applications.
-- Associated Press
February 23, 2016
Federal prosecutors charged four men of conspiring to export technical equipment to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. One defendant, Shahin Tabatabaei, of Vancouver, Canada, was arrested at the U.S.-Canada border on February 19. Between 2007 and 2011, Tabatabaei allegedly ran companies in Mexico and Canada that shipped U.S.-origin goods to Iran, via transshipment through Turkey or the United Arab Emirates. These goods, which have applications in the oil and gas industry, included pressure transducers, thermal imagers, solenoid valves, battery chargers, and gear-motors. Three other defendants were indicted in the case: Seyed Mohammad Akhavan of Canada; Abbas Moradi of Iran; and Amirreza Sahebjamei of Iran.
-- Associated Press
February 18, 2016
The European Union's highest court ruled on February 18 that Bank Mellat, Iran's largest privately-owned bank, had been improperly sanctioned by the European Union in 2010. The European Court of Justice found insufficient evidence to support the contention that Bank Mellat was involved in Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The EU removed sanctions on Bank Mellat in January following the implementation of the nuclear agreement with Iran, but the court's decision, which cannot be appealed, could allow a claim for damages.
-- Wall Street Journal
February 10, 2016
Falcon Instrumentation and Machinery FZE, the Iranian partner in a conspiracy to export machinery from the United States to Iran without a license, was ordered to pay a $100,000 criminal fine in U.S. District Court on January 6. The company, formerly known as FIMCO, had pleaded guilty and also agreed to pay the Bureau of Industry and Security a civil penalty of $837,500 in July 2015. The conspiracy involved the export of bar peeling machinery worth $895,544 to Iran via transshipment through the United Arab Emirates. The Pennsylvania-based partner in the scheme, Hetran Inc., and its CEO, Helmut Oertmann, were previously sentenced to 12 months' probation in December 2014.
-- Export Practitioner
February 10, 2016
Chinese national Sihai Cheng was sentenced to nine years in U.S. federal prison for his role in conspiring to export American-made pressure transducers to Iran in violation of U.S. export laws. Charges against his Iranian co-conspirator, Seyed Abolfazi Shahab Jamili, were dropped as part of the prisoner exchange agreement with Iran on January 17. Cheng sold Jamili thousands of controlled goods with nuclear applications, including vacuum pressure valves, titanium sheets and tubes, and electronic switches.
-- Export Practitioner
February 10, 2016
Iranian Defense Minister General Hossein Dehghan announced that Iran will sign a contract with Russia to purchase Sukhoi-30 fighter jets. General Dehghan did not state how many planes Iran will buy nor when the contract will be finalized. The Russian-made Sukhoi-30 is said to be comparable to the American F-15E Strike Eagle.
-- Associated Press
January 16, 2016
The United States and European Union lifted sanctions on Iran's oil, financial, and other sectors on January 16, after the International Atomic Energy Agency verified that Iran had dismantled major components of its nuclear program. Iran also received access to roughly $100 billion in frozen assets, while hundreds of Iranian entities were removed from the U.S., E.U., and U.N. blacklists. Iran's commitments under the nuclear deal included: shipping 98 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia; dismantling more than 12,000 centrifuges; and pouring cement into the core of the Arak reactor. In parallel to the implementation of the nuclear deal, the United States and Iran reached agreement on a prisoner exchange, which included the release of five Americans. In return, seven Iranians were released, and 14 others were removed from the Interpol wanted list.
-- New York Times
December 28, 2015
Iran shipped out 25,000 pounds of nuclear material, including most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium, to Russia on December 28, fulfilling a major requirement of the nuclear agreement. The shipment was technically part of a "fuel swap," with Iran receiving quantities of natural uranium, partly from Kazakhstan, in return. Under the nuclear agreement, Iran is permitted to retain only 300 kilograms of low-enriched uranium.
-- New York Times