Sanctions? What sanctions?
The Iranian missile program has been nurtured and kept alive through a sophisticated network of Turkish companies owned by Iranians exporting prohibited materials to Iran....with the Islamist Turkish government likely turning a blind eye.
According to the indictment unsealed by our Justice Department, the organizer of the network was 36-year-old Milad Jafari, who is at large and believed to be in Iran.
The way Jafari defeated the sanctions was to run businesses in Istanbul and Tehran that would buy metals like steel and aluminum alloy from U.S. companies and export them through Turkey to hide their true destination, since exports to Iran are prohibited without authorization from the Treasury Department. The Treasury Department estimates that Jafari's network is responsible for more than $7 million in transactions involving Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization.
"The Jafari network has established itself as a lifeline for Iran's missile program by providing essential materials and support for AIO," said Stuart Levey, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
Jafari had a number of high level Turkish partners, and according to the U.S. Treasury Department, Turkish companies Macpar Makina, or Macpar, and Step A.Ş. are cooperating with them in investigating exactly what was shipped and who shipped it.
I read somewhere that the US has 10 atom warheads stored in Turkey. This sure is encouraging.
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