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Two Iranian cargo ships carrying a crucial chemical ingredient for missile propellant will sail from China to Iran in the coming weeks, according to intelligence from security officials in two Western countries.
The Iranian-flagged ships – the Golbon and the Jairan – are expected to carry more than 1,000 tonnes of sodium perchlorate, used to make ammonium perchlorate, the main ingredient in the missiles’ solid propellant.
Two of the officials said sodium perchlorate could produce 960 tons of ammonium perchlorate, which makes up 70 percent of the propellant in solid-fuel missiles. This amount of ammonium perchlorate could produce 1,300 tons of propellant, enough to power 260 medium-range Iranian missiles such as the Kheibar Shekan or Haj Qassem, the officials added.
Ammonium perchlorate is one of the chemicals controlled by the Missile Technology Export Control Regime, an international anti-proliferation body.
The chemicals were being shipped to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the elite branch of Iran’s military, two of the officials said.
The two officials said 34 20-foot containers containing the chemical were loaded onto the Golbon, which departed from China’s Daishan Island on Tuesday. The Jairan is expected to leave China with 22 containers in early February. The two ships, which belong to Iranian entities, were scheduled to make the three-week journey to Iran without making any stops, officials said.
Officials said the chemicals were loaded onto the Golbon at Taicang, a port just north of Shanghai, and were destined for Bandar Abbas, a southern Iranian port on the Persian Gulf.
Based on Marine Traffic vessel tracking data, the Golbon spent at least several days off Daishan Island before leaving on Tuesday. Marine Traffic showed the Jairan about 75 km south of Daishan, off the coast of Ningbo, in China’s Zhejiang province, early Wednesday.
Officials could not say whether Beijing knew about the shipments. The United States and its allies have frequently criticized China for its support of regimes from Tehran to Moscow.
China’s embassy in Washington said it was “unfamiliar” with the situation and that Beijing was committed to “maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East and the Gulf region and promoting actively the political and diplomatic settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue.
The Iranian government declined to comment.
Dennis Wilder, a former CIA China analyst, said China had made significant arms sales to Iran since 1979, including providing “Silkworm” anti-ship missiles in 1986 during the Iran-Iran War. Iraq.
“Since the early 1990s, China has extensively assisted the Iranian military in its ballistic missile development program and provided it with expertise, technology, parts and training,” said Wilder, who is now at Georgetown University.
“Today, China’s motivation for covertly aiding Iran includes covertly helping Iran produce missiles for the Russian war effort (in Ukraine), thereby cementing common cause against US hegemonism perceived. . . and Beijing’s annual purchase of large quantities of Iranian crude oil at a discount.
Washington has also criticized China for violating U.S. sanctions by purchasing Iranian oil, but critics of the Biden administration say it has not done enough to enforce the sanctions.
The United States has also increased pressure on Beijing over the past two years not to do more to stop shipments of dual-use goods to Russia that have aided Moscow in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But shipment volume showed little sign of decline.