German security officials say that despite the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran has still been pursuing the acquisition of illicit nuclear and missile technology in that nation, Benjamin Weinthal of The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday.
Weinthal cited a report by correspondent Frank Jansen in the Berlin daily paper, Der Tagesspiegel, which stated that according to security sources “despite the nuclear agreement [reached with world powers in July 2015], Iran has not given up its illegal activities in Germany. The mullah regime also made efforts this year to obtain material from [German] firms for its nuclear program and the construction of missiles.”
According to Jansen’s report, the technology most sought by Iran is one that would allow it to extend the range of its ballistic missiles. While German security agencies noted a decrease of efforts by Iran to acquire illicit technology—from 141 in 2015 to 32 in 2016—officials attributed this decline to a disagreement in Iran’s government on how aggressively to pursue its nuclear program.
German annual intelligence reports for 2015, while nuclear negotiations were ongoing, and 2016, when the deal was actually implemented, showed that Iran was still seeking nuclear technology. According to the latter report “there is no evidence of a complete about-face in Iran’s atomic polices in 2016.”
On Friday of last week, President Donald Trump announced a reformulation of United States policy towards Iran. Trump said that due to Iran’s behavior “we cannot and will not make this certification.” He added that his goal was to strengthen the deal to ensure “Iran never — and I mean never — acquires a nuclear weapon.”
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