U.S. Puts Sanctions on 7 Foreign Companies Dealing With Iran
August 5, 2006
By HELENE COOPER and STEVEN LEE MYERS
nytimes.com
WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 — The United States has imposed sanctions on seven foreign companies, two of them Russian, for providing Iran with materials that could be used to make unconventional weapons or cruise or ballistic missile systems, it was announced Friday.
The sanctions, effective July 28, will be in place for two years. During that time, American government agencies are not allowed to buy goods or services from the seven companies or provide them with assistance. The sanctions also bar the sale of some military equipment, services or technologies to the companies or their subsidiaries.
The two Russian companies are Rosoboronexport, the state-owned arms trading monopoly, and Sukhoi, a large manufacturer of military and civilian aircraft.
Also affected by the sanctions are the Korean Mining and Industrial Development Corporation and Korea Pugang Trading Corporation, both of North Korea; one Cuban company, the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology; and two Indian companies, Prachi Poly Products and Balaji Amines.
The sanctions were imposed by the State Department under the Iran Nonproliferation Act, passed by Congress in 2000. The announcement brings to 33 the number of foreign companies penalized under the law.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry responded swiftly and harshly, calling the decision unacceptable and denying that the country’s military trade with Iran had violated any international laws.
“In effect, it amounts to one more unjustifiable attempt to force foreign companies to base their activities on American domestic regulations,” the ministry said in a statement released on Friday evening in Moscow. “Sanctions of this kind that the United States unilaterally applies to other countries and to organizations in them are an obvious political and legal anachronism, especially when such moves are made under far-fetched pretexts.”
On Monday, Russia joined the United States, Britain, France, China and other members of the United Nations Security Council in passing a resolution giving Iran until the end of this month to suspend its enrichment of uranium or face sanctions.
A senior Bush administration official, questioned about the timing of the sanctions announced Friday, given that the United States is trying to hold the Russians in a coalition to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, said that “there’s never a good time” to impose sanctions. “They know the law,” he added.
The official asked that he not be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
Late last year, Russia signed an agreement to ship $1 billion in weaponry to Iran. The agreement includes the sale of Tor-M1 air defense missiles, but the deal has not yet been completed, according to Russian news reports.
An official at Sukhoi expressed puzzlement, saying the company had worked closely with American companies and had not sold anything to Iran in recent years. Sukhoi has been working with Boeing on a joint venture to develop a regional passenger airliner, but it is not clear whether that project will be affected.
“We have been on the U.S. market for a long time,” Sukhoi’s deputy director, Aleksandr N. Klementyev, said in a radio interview Friday evening on Ekho Moskvy. “We study the legislation very attentively, and we have never violated anything, nor are we going to.”
John Dern, a spokesman for Boeing, said his company was “reviewing the sanctions to assure that we’ll be in full compliance with their requirements.’’ Boeing serves in an advisory role in Sukhoi Civil Aircraft’s plan to develop a regional jet called Superjet 100, he said.
The plane, which seats 100, is supposed to make its first flight in September 2007. It would compete with regional jets built by Embraer, a Brazilian company, and Bombardier, of Quebec.
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement suggested that the sanctions could hurt American companies. “In effect, the United States punishes its own companies, depriving them of the opportunity to cooperate with advanced Russian enterprises,” the statement said.
It did not address the debate over how to respond to Iran’s nuclear programs, but it called the American step “shortsighted” and said it was “bound to affect the quality of our cooperation” with the United States.
Helene Cooper reported from Washington for this article, and Steven Lee Myers from Moscow. Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting from Washington.
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