A confidential new report by a United Nations panel highlights Iran’s methods of evading sanctions, from concealing titanium tubes inside steel pipes to using its petrochemical industry as a cover to obtain items for a heavy-water nuclear reactor.
The latest report by the U.N. Panel of Experts, which monitors compliance with the Security Council’s sanctions regime on Iran, said Iran’s attempts to illicitly procure materials for its disputed nuclear and missile programs may have slowed down as it pursues talks on a long-term deal with world powers.
But the experts’ report, which reached the Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee days ahead of a new round of talks between Iran and six world powers in Vienna, said an alternative explanation could be that Iran had merely learned how to outsmart security and intelligence services in acquiring sensitive components and materials.
Though Iran insists its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes, Western powers and their allies suspect the country of trying to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
To read the full report, published in Israel Hayom, click here.