 Taiwan |
LONDON – British MI6 intelligence agency investigators have discovered Iran has set up a new smuggling network in Taiwan to obtain specialized equipment used for the production of nuclear weapons, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
Insiders report Iran has established companies to buy the equipment on the world markets and then smuggle it into Tehran.
The purchases have involved pressure transducers, which are used to produce weapons-grade uranium, and Secret Intelligence Service officers have established that nuclear scientists from Tehran have held meetings in Taiwan's capital, Taipei, to buy the units.
The equipment is stored by the companies in a high-security area on the island.
The companies are fronted by local Chinese businessmen, and MI6 officers believe some of them have worked in China's own nuclear industry before moving to Taiwan. The intelligence officers have also traced bank accounts held by the businessmen to banks in the Cayman Islands.
"It suggests that they are almost certainly well paid for the work on behalf of Iran," said a senior intelligence source in London.
Iran has been trying to acquire the equipment for more than a year. But Russia and European companies refused to sell Tehran the transducers.
Now China has joined in refusing to sell such specialized technology after Beijing supported a censure motion passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna last month following the revelation that Tehran was building a second uranium enrichment facility at Qom.
At the end of this month, the U.N. will be asked to impose a new round of sanctions against Iran unless it agrees to abandon its nuclear program.
A report passed on by MI6 to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna last week revealed Iran had already acquired 100 transducers from Taiwan.
