{"id":98,"date":"2005-05-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-19T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en:8888\/statements\/nuclear\/98-iran-smuggling-graphite-compound-for-nukes"},"modified":"2005-05-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-05-19T23:00:00","slug":"iran-smuggling-graphite-compound-for-nukes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/nuclear\/iran-smuggling-graphite-compound-for-nukes\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran smuggling graphite compound for nukes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Louis Charbonneau<br \/> <\/em> <strong> VIENNA, May 20 (Reuters)<\/strong> &#8211; Iran has been using front companies to skirt international export controls and purchase a graphite compound that can be used in nuclear and conventional arms, an Iranian exile said on Friday.<br \/>  <em \/>The latest allegation from Alireza Jafarzadeh, an Iranian dissident who has reported accurately on Iran&#8217;s hidden nuclear facilities and activities in the past, comes days before the European Union meets Iran&#8217;s top nuclear negotiator in Geneva to persuade Tehran not to resume sensitive atomic work.<br \/> &quot;Iran has been smuggling into the country a key material that is important to build a nuclear bomb,&quot; said Jafarzadeh, who was a spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) before it was listed as a terrorist organisation by the U.S. State Department and its Washington offices were shut down.<br \/> Speaking to Reuters from Washington where he runs a consulting firm, Jafarzadeh said the controlled substance is a graphite compound called ceramic matrix composite.<br \/> &quot;Iran is smuggling it into the country for its nuclear weapons programme,&quot; Jafarzadeh said, adding that Iran was also trying to manufacture the substance itself.<br \/> He said his information came from &quot;well-placed sources inside Iran&quot;.<br \/> &quot;Iran has been bypassing export controls with the help of front companies, including one in Dubai,&quot; Jafarzadeh said. He said some of the graphite was purchased in China and that the end users were linked to Iran&#8217;s defence industry.<br \/> Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment. Tehran rejects U.S. allegations that its nuclear energy programme is a front to develop nuclear weapons, saying it is only interested in the peaceful generation of electricity.<br \/> Graphite has numerous civilian uses, such as in the production of steel. However, it also has uses in conventional and nuclear missiles &#8212; such as the preparation of shells or casings for weapons-grade uranium used in nuclear warheads.<br \/> CRITICAL FOR WEAPONS SYSTEMS<br \/> According to the U.S. Department of Defense, ceramic matrix composites are strictly controlled substances that are critical for weapons systems technologies.<br \/> The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been investigating Iran&#8217;s nuclear programme for over two years. It has found many hidden activities that could be linked to arms but no clear proof Tehran has a secret atom bomb programme.<br \/> Iran hid the most sensitive parts of its atomic programme &#8212; including its uranium enrichment plant at Natanz &#8212; from the IAEA for 18 years until Jafarzadeh exposed them in August 2002.<br \/> IAEA officials were not available for comment.<br \/> Some non-proliferation analysts, such as former U.N. weapons inspector David Albright, have said Jafarzadeh and the NCRI always time their allegations to coincide with an EU-Iran meetings or IAEA board meetings.<br \/> Jafarzadeh rejected this criticism.<br \/> &quot;Do these people want me to keep silent because there are negotiations with Iran? &#8230; I put out information when I get it,&quot; Jafarzadeh said.<br \/> The EU&#8217;s big three &#8212; France, Britain and Germany &#8212; have a meeting with Iran in Geneva on Wednesday, EU diplomats told Reuters. The EU hopes to persuade Iran to continue its freeze of sensitive nuclear work to avert an international crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Louis Charbonneau VIENNA, May 20 (Reuters) &ndash; Iran has been using front companies to skirt international export controls and purchase a graphite compound that can be used in nuclear [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-98","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-nuclear"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Iran smuggling graphite compound for nukes - NCRI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Louis Charbonneau VIENNA, May 20 (Reuters) - Iran has been using front companies to skirt international export controls and purchase a graphite\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/nuclear\/iran-smuggling-graphite-compound-for-nukes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iran smuggling graphite compound for nukes - 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