Israel Matzav

Dutch delivered banned nuclear equipment to Iran

Shavua tov, a good week, v'Chodesh tov, a good month, to everyone.

No, it's apparently not an accident that Holland has put Geert Wilders on trial for insulting Islam. The Dutch are apparently bigger Islamophiles than any of us ever new. They love Islam enough to be delivering banned nuclear equipment to Iran.

Authorities in the Netherlands improperly supplied nuclear equipment to the sanctioned Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), the Dutch Economic Affairs Ministry wrote in an October 4 letter obtained by The Jerusalem Post.

According to Economic Affairs Minister Maria van der Hoeven’s letter, “That shipment contained a helium-leak detector, which was ordered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in line with its technical cooperation program with Iran, [but] was shipped to a banned recipient (AEOI).”

The UN agency’s involvement in the delivery of EUsanctioned material raises thorny questions about the role of the IAEA in monitoring Iran’s illicit proliferation efforts.

The American government sanctioned the AEOI under an executive order and the US Treasury Department noted that “The AEOI manages Iran’s overall nuclear program and reports directly to the Iranian president.”

According to Van der Hoeven’s letter, a second illicit shipment “consisted of products under embargo (pressure meters) for the Iranian oil and gas industry.”

Ruud Stevens, a spokesman for the Dutch Economics Ministry, wrote the Post by e-mail on Thursday that “the letter of October 4 was a letter to the Dutch parliament from three ministers – economic affairs, finance (customs) and foreign affairs – about goods that because of the sanctions were not supposed to leave the Netherlands.

“Since the goods left the customs territory of the European Union before the error was discovered, there was no possibility for our customs to stop the goods from being transported.

The public prosecutor is currently examining whether there is sufficient information for prosecution of the exporters for violation of the sanctions legislation.”

Read the whole thing - it sounds like the gang that couldn't shoot straight. But the bottom line is that once again, the sanctions are proven totally useless. What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:55 PM