Two Iranian cargo vessels carrying an ingredient for missile propellant will sail from China to Iran in the next few weeks, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing intelligence from security officials
Two Iranian cargo vessels carrying an ingredient for missile propellant will sail from China to Iran in the next few weeks, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing intelligence from security officials in two Western countries.
The reported transactions could make the Chinese entities involved subject to U.S. sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's weapons programs, as the two Iranian vessels are already under U.S. sanctions.
The FT said the Iranian-flagged ships, the Golbon and the Jairan, are expected to carry more than 1,000 tonnes of sodium perchlorate, which is used to make ammonium perchlorate, the main ingredient for solid propellant for missiles.
Ammonium perchlorate is among chemicals controlled by the Missile Technology Export Control Regime, a voluntary international anti-proliferation body.
The FT report cited two unnamed officials as saying that the sodium perchlorate could produce 960 tonnes of ammonium perchlorate, enough to make 1,300 tonnes of propellant, which could fuel 260 mid-range Iranian missiles.
The officials said the sodium perchlorate was being shipped to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and that 34 20-foot (six-meter) containers containing the chemical had been loaded onto the Golbon, which departed the Chinese island of Daishan on Tuesday and was off the coast of
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