Four men were arrested by German federal authorities in Hamburg, Oldenburg, and Weimar on August 15, 2012, on suspicion of illegally supplying Iran with nuclear reactor components. The home and company of a businessman in Halle were also searched. The suspects are accused of having supplied specialized valves for a heavy water reactor under construction in Iran, which is a violation of German trade law. The transactions allegedly took place in 2010 and 2011 and the suspects appear to have used front companies in Turkey and Azerbaijan to circumvent German law. Three of the suspects, known only as Kianzad Ka., Gholamali Ka., and Hamid Kh., are dual German-Iranian citizens, and a fourth, known as Rudolf M., is a German national. Gholamali Ka., 59, runs a Hamburg-based company specialized in exporting valves and pumps with his son, Kianzad Ka., 25. Rudolf M., 78, is an engineer and owns a Weimar-based plant specialized in custom fittings. An Iranian national identified as Hossein T. met with these men in an effort to fill an order for Modern Industries Technique Company (MITEC), an Iranian company responsible for the design and construction of Iran's IR-40 heavy water reactor near Arak. Iran aims to complete this reactor by 2013.

An increasing number of countries are refusing to flag vessels affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), and are revoking flags from IRISL vessels, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. In June, Sierra Leone revoked its flag from the Amin, a vessel owned by the U.N. sanctioned IRISL affiliate Irano-Hind. Since then, Sierra Leone has revoked the flags of a further eight IRISL vessels. In August, Tuvalu and Tanzania de-registered dozens of Iranian tankers owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC). The semi-autonomous Tanzanian region of Zanzibar said in August that it too would deregister NITC-owned tankers, which it claims were registered by a Dubai shipping agent without government approval. NITC was blacklisted by the United States in July and accused of using front companies and other deceptive methods in order to evade sanctions. In September 2012, Moldova announced that it had de-registered about twelve IRISL vessels.