Speaking to the German television program "Report Mainz" last week, security experts confirmed that as many as 100 dummy firms in Germany are involved in illegally exporting components for missiles and aircraft to Iran.
Johannes Schmalzl, president of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the state of Baden-Württemberg, said that the situation wasn't entirely new. "We've been devoting time to the topic since 2002," he said. "And we've concluded that an estimated 100 dummy firms in Germany are involved in it."
"A country, which like Iran intensively works on missiles, only does this in order to be able to put nuclear weapons on the missiles," Oliver Thränert of the Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs told the television station. "Iran is certainly far removed from that, but in the end, Iran's goal seems to be to fire nuclear weapons with its missiles."
Most of the exports were designed to refine and perfect Iran's missile program, which is widely considered a key part of Tehran's ambitions to establish itself as a serious nuclear and military power. According to public broadcast station ARD, Iran has been sending agents on shopping trips to Europe and to Germany in order to improve the reach and precision of their missiles for years.
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