US charges Chinese National with Providing Weapons Materials to Iran

The United States has charged a Chinese national with violating US sanctions by providing to Iran materials used to produce ballistic missiles. (Reuters)
The United States has charged a Chinese national with violating US sanctions by providing to Iran materials used to produce ballistic missiles. (Reuters)
TT

US charges Chinese National with Providing Weapons Materials to Iran

The United States has charged a Chinese national with violating US sanctions by providing to Iran materials used to produce ballistic missiles. (Reuters)
The United States has charged a Chinese national with violating US sanctions by providing to Iran materials used to produce ballistic missiles. (Reuters)

The United States has charged a Chinese national with violating US sanctions by providing to Iran materials used to produce ballistic missiles, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Tuesday.

Xiangjiang Qiao works at Sinotech Dalian Carbon and Graphite Manufacturing Corporation, a China-based company which the US Treasury Department placed on a sanctions list in 2014 for helping Iran buy parts to produce ballistic missiles.

Sanctions bar companies from using the US financial system.

Qiao between 2019 and 2022 helped supply Iran with isostatic graphite, an ultra-fine grain used to make rocket nozzles, and set up a bank account in the name of a front company to receive $15,000 in transfers from a US bank in connection with the transactions, prosecutors said.

Qiao, 39, is in China and has not been arrested, prosecutors said. He faces charges including sanctions evasion, bank fraud and money laundering.



Khamenei: Iran Doesn’t Have Proxies in the Region

Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei meets a group of elegists and eulogists in Tehran
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei meets a group of elegists and eulogists in Tehran
TT

Khamenei: Iran Doesn’t Have Proxies in the Region

Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei meets a group of elegists and eulogists in Tehran
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei meets a group of elegists and eulogists in Tehran

Iran’s supreme leader denied Sunday that militant groups around the region functioned as Tehran’s proxies, warning that if his country chose to “take action,” it would not need them anyway.
Ali Khamenei told a group of elegists and eulogists in Tehran, “They keep saying that the Islamic Republic has lost its proxy forces in the region! This is another mistake. If one day we want to take action, we do not need a proxy force,” according to his website.
Khamenei then attacked the United States and its ally Israel over developments in Syria, and hinted at internal criticism of Iran's regional role.
“Their plans in Syria led to unrest and chaos, and now the United States, the Zionist regime, and their allies, feeling victorious, have resorted to extravagant claims and nonsensical talk, like the followers of devil,” he said.
The Iranian leader then quoted an American official as saying that Washington will “provide assistance and support to anyone causing unrest in Iran.”
Such statements, he said, are an example of the enemies’ boastful rhetoric. “The Iranian nation with their strong steps will trample underfoot any US mercenary who accepts this role,” he added.
Khamenei then addressed the Israelis saying, “You Zionists haven’t won; you’ve been defeated. Yes, you were able to advance a few kilometers in Syria where there wasn't even one soldier with a gun to stop you. That’s not victory. Indeed, the courageous, devout, young people of Syria will definitely expel you from there.”
He added, “You wretched people! Where have you won? Have you won in Gaza? Have you destroyed Hamas? Have you freed your own prisoners? Is this victory to kill over 40,000 people without being able to achieve even one of your goals? Despite killing Hassan Nasrallah, have you managed to eliminate Hezbollah in Lebanon?”
Khamenei also affirmed that Iran has not lost its proxies in the region.
“Iran doesn’t have proxy forces. Yemen fights due to their faith. Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fight because their beliefs compel them to do so,” he said.
IRGC commander Hossein Salami, five days after Assad's fall, had denied that Iran had lost its regional arms. “Some suggest the Iranian regime has lost its arms, but this is not true. The regime still has its arms,” he said.