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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Austria probes firm over atom-related Iran exports |
| 2006-12-17 |
| GRAZ, Austria (Reuters) - Austrian police have arrested one man and are seeking the head of a firm suspected of exporting to Iran components that could be used in nuclear weapons, a state prosecutor said on Friday. Marx said something timeless about westerners, sales, rope and hanging. Iran covered up sensitive atomic activity from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, IAEA, for almost 20 years and has a history of acquiring components on the black market and other unregulated channels to outwit export curbs, diplomats and analysts say. They also worked with A. Q. Khan to develop a sophisticated distributed development program to hide the extent of the work. Prosecutor Manfred Kammerer said a three-man import-export firm, Daniel Frosch Export, was suspected of having supplied capacitors and accelerators to Iran which can be used in civilian industry but also for atomic weapons. Kammerer, confirming a report on Friday in a regional newspaper, said Erich Frosch, father of the company director, had been arrested and some electronic parts seized in August in the southern Austrian city of Graz. Kammerer said police also wanted to detain company director Daniel Frosch but he had moved to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before August following repeated warnings from Austria's economics and labor ministry, which oversees exports controls, to stop the deliveries to Iran. Got out of Dodge, did he? Daniel Frosch's lawyer said he had done nothing illegal. "The accusations against my client are baseless. Business with Iran was done, but the devices and parts delivered were for civilian use ... in accordance with Austrian export law," lawyer Gerald Ruhri told Reuters. "Lies! All lies!" Kammerer said capacitors and accelerators were on a list maintained by industrialised nations of parts and technology of potential use in nuclear arms and restricted for export to Iran. "They seem to be dual use items. I don't know the specifications but the capacitors are normally for more military applications," a senior IAEA diplomat said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |