U.S. to Punish 9 Companies Said to Help Iran on Arms

U.S. to Punish 9 Companies Said to Help Iran on Arms

By DAVID E. SANGER, NYT.

Published: December 28, 2005

CRAWFORD, Tex., Dec. 27 - The Bush administration announced new sanctions on Tuesday against state-owned Chinese companies that it accused of aiding Iran's missile and chemical programs, insisting that Beijing cut off the trade at a time when Mr. Bush is trying to persuade China's leaders to condemn Tehran's nuclear program.

The sanctions, announced by the State Department, are part of a diplomatically complex effort to cut off the flow of technology into Iran that could aid its weapons programs, while pressing both China and Russia to threaten action against Tehran at the United Nations Security Council.

Included in the latest sanctions, first reported Tuesday by The Washington Times, are two companies closely tied to the Chinese military: the China North Industries Corporation, known as Norinco, and the China Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation, or Catic, which is one of the country's largest producers of military aircraft.

The sanctions will have little practical effect on most of the nine companies cited, including two Indian companies and one Austrian one that makes assault rifles and other small arms. The Chinese companies are already barred from doing business with the United States.

But Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman, called the move "an important and effective tool in constraining Iran's efforts to develop missile and W.M.D. capabilities." He added, "It does have an impact, I think, particularly in alerting governments to activity taking place in their countries and instituting measures or taking actions to prevent those kinds of activities."

Administration officials said they had no evidence that President Hu Jintao or other Chinese leaders were aware of the sales, and they said the Chinese had been sporadically helpful in cutting off shipments of crucial technologies to the Iranians.

But the announcement on Tuesday was the third since July 2003 in which the administration released a list of Chinese companies that officials say are bolstering Iran's missile and chemical programs. There is little evidence so far that China has cracked down on the companies that are owned or effectively controlled by the military.

While the State Department announcement did not describe the technology exported to Iran, information that is classified, officials said none of it specifically dealt with nuclear weapons or the integration of Iran's nuclear program with its missile program.

Nonetheless, they said, they were concerned that Iran was strengthening its missile technology at the same time that its new president had declared that Israel should be "wiped off the map," and that new evidence, acquired from a stolen laptop computer in Iran, suggested that Iranian engineers were grappling with the technical difficulties of fitting a nuclear device atop a missile. Iran does not yet possess such a device, American intelligence officials say.

"There is a serial proliferation issue under way here, and the only way we know to deal with it is to keep up this pressure," said one senior administration official, who asked not to be identified because the administration was trying to impose the sanctions with little fanfare.

The announcement comes at a particularly delicate moment in the American effort to win support from China and Russia for acting against Iran.

Earlier this month, American, British and French officials met in Paris to draft a statement condemning Iran's nuclear program. They are circulating that draft to China and Russia, two officials said Tuesday, in hopes of getting all the permanent members of the Security Council to sign on. So far China and Russia have resisted any move toward sanctions, saying any overt confrontation would be counterproductive.

Mr. Ereli said that Austria had been cooperative in the investigation leading to sanctions against the company there, Steyr-Mannlicher G.m.b.H., but that the company had continued to do business with Iran. He said nothing about India's dealings with two chemical companies on the list: Sabero Organics Gujarat Ltd. and Sandhya Organic Chemicals Pvt. Ltd.

The other Chinese companies were the Hongdu Aviation Industry Group, the Limmt Metallurgy and Minerals Company, Ounion (Asia) International Economic and Technical Cooperation Ltd. and the Zibo Chemet Equipment Company.