Iran ‘getting help with missiles’

TWO German businessmen, a former Russian military officer and North Korea are among those helping Iran develop missiles the West fears could one day carry nuclear warheads, diplomats and intelligence officials say.

Last month, German federal prosecutors charged two German citizens with espionage for helping a foreign intelligence agency acquire dual-use “delivery system” technology. The prosecutors announced the charge of espionage last week but did not name the country involved.

The two German men have been accused of “having sold a vibration testing facility in 2001 and 2002 on behalf of a foreign military intelligence procurement entity,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement on its website.

A German official familiar with the case, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the investigation, said the country involved was Iran.

“These missile technology dealers ... appear to have been acting alone and were not part of any organised gang,” he said.

The state prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe, Germany did not name the men or the German company they worked for.

The involvement of German citizens in what US and European officials believe is Iran’s covert nuclear weapons program will be embarrassing for Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has vowed to prevent Tehran from getting nuclear weapons.

A European and a non-European intelligence official told Reuters that Russian middlemen were helping Iran get missile technology from North Korea that could bring central Europe within the range of Iranian missiles.

An EU diplomat, citing his country’s intelligence, said Iran had purchased 18 disassembled BM-25 mobile missiles with a range of around 2,500km from North Korea. He was confirming a German newspaper report from December that cited Germany’s BND foreign intelligence service.