Iran is working to expand and upgrade its weapons of mass destruction arsenal, according to a German intelligence report obtained and published on Monday by conservative news outlet the Washington Free Beacon.
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The Islamic republic is seeking to expand its "conventional arsenal of weapons through the production or constant modernization of weapons of mass destruction," said the German-language report issued last week by the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a state security agency equivalent to the FBI.
The German report, which covers the year 2020 and was independently translated for the Washington Free Beacon, also found that Iran is waging sophisticated espionage activities in the country. Germany is one of several European countries where Iranian spies are known to operate.
"In order to obtain the necessary know-how and corresponding components," Iranian agents in 2020 sought to establish business contacts with German companies operating in the high-tech field while dodging US and international sanctions. "This includes information from foreign and security policy as well as business and science."
The report concluded that "Germany remains in the focus of [Iranian] intelligence activities."
The German intelligence report directly refute claims by Iran's leaders that the country has no interest in building a nuclear bomb and provides the firmest evidence to date that Iran is misleading the world about the nature of its nuclear program.
Iran's intelligence services are also engaged in "the observation of and fight against opposition groups, domestically and abroad," according to the report.
It was unclear if and how the report could influence nuclear talks with Iran, which include the United States and Germany along with Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom.
The German report, according to the Washington Free Beacon, further notes that North Korea, Syria, and Pakistan engaged in similar WMD efforts in 2020.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been one of the leading proponents of the nuclear accord and reopening business ties with Iran.
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