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13 Firms Sanctioned for Alleged Aid to Iranian WMD, Missile Programs By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — The United States has imposed sanctions against 13 companies, academic institutions and individuals in several countries for allegedly aiding Iran’s WMD and missile efforts, the U.S. State Department said Friday (see GSN, April 1). Five Chinese entities were sanctioned for violating the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2002, as were two from Macedonia, two from Russia, and one each from Belarus, North Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates, deputy department spokesman Adam Ereli said. The sanctioned Chinese companies were the Zibo Chemical Equipment Plant, China North Industries Corp. (NORINCO), China Precision Machinery Import/Export Corp. (CPMIEC), Oriental Scientific Instruments Corp. (OSIC) and the Beijing Institute of Opto-Electronic Technology (BIOET), a Bush administration official told Global Security Newswire today in a written statement (see GSN, Sept. 19, 2003). The administration official also identified among the sanctioned entities the Russian company Baranov Engine Building Association Overhaul Facility, Russian national Vadim Vorobey, the Belarusian entity Belarus Belvneshpromservice, the Macedonian company Mikrosam, Macedonian national Blagoja Samakoski, the Taiwanese company Goodly Industrial, the North Korean Changgwang Sinyong Corp. and the United Arab Emirates company Elmstone Services and Trading FZE (see GSN, July 25, 2003). The sanctions, which went into effect April 1 and are to expire in two years, prohibit the U.S. government from entering into contracts with or providing assistance to the entities, as well as from selling to the entities items listed on the U.S. munitions list. In addition, new export licenses are to be denied and existing licenses suspended for the transfer of controlled items to the entities. The 13 entities were sanctioned, Ereli said Friday, “because there was credible information indicating that these companies had transferred to Iran, since Jan. 1, 1999,” equipment and technologies controlled under multilateral export control regimes, similar items capable of being used in prohibited programs that fall below the control list parameters of multilateral export control regimes or other items “with the potential of making a material contribution to proscribed programs.” Several of the entities sanctioned last week have been previously punished for alleged proliferation activities. The Changgwang Sinyong Corp. was sanctioned twice in 2001 and again in 2003 for violating the Iran Nonproliferation Act, Ereli said. He also said that NORINCO, the China Precision Machinery Import/Export Corporation and the Zibo Equipment Plant were also previously sanctioned in the last two years for violating the act. Last year, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance Paula DeSutter went so far as to label NORINCO as a “serial proliferator.” In addition, the United States imposed sanctions late last year against Mikrosam and Samakoski over alleged missile technology proliferation activities involving a non-Missile Technology Control Regime member (see GSN, Dec. 29, 2003). Ereli said Friday that the sanctions only apply to the companies themselves and not to their respective governments. In a later press release, the State Department said that the respective governments had been informed of the sanctions. In a statement Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the U.S. decision. “Russia rejects the very principle of the imposition by one state of sanctions on some structures of other states. As far as genuinely nonproliferation aspects of such matters are concerned, we want to emphasize that Russia has a strict internal export control legislation conforming to high international standards that enables effectively cutting short any unapproved activities involving the trade in sensitive materials,” the ministry said. Last week, the United States announced that sanctions imposed against four Russian entities during the late 1990s for alleged aid to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programs had been lifted. Ereli said Friday that those sanctions were lifted because there was “no evidence” that the entities were continuing the activities for which they had been previously sanctioned. There is no connection, though, between last week’s decision to lift proliferation-related sanctions against some Russian entities and to impose sanctions on two others, the administration official said today.
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