Hamburg Report Highlights Iran Buying ‘Proliferation’ Equipment

The man, named only as ‘Alexander J’ due to German privacy laws, allegedly between 2018 and 2020 sold Iran laboratory equipment, including four spectrometers, that required special licenses and was worth nearly 1 million Euros.

The Hamburg report said two alleged accomplices were still sought, and listed the case under ‘proliferation,’ which it defined as “the procurement of products for the production of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction and the corresponding carrier technology (rocket technology), including the know-how required for this."

Iran's regime is mentioned 82 times in the 194-page Hamburg report that focuses on a wide range of security threats to Hamburg's democracy.

At the time of Alexander J’s arrest in September, German police searched offices and apartments in 11 separate locations, across three German states – Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia.

A report last year from the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (Isis) said the case reflected “the continued effort of Iran to break trade control laws and sanctions of other nations to procure items for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.” Isis said Iran had in the Alexander J case not sought permits required under the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal for equipment that “could contribute to sensitive activities, including enrichment-related activities, reprocessing or heavy-water-related activities.”