(Newser)
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International sanctions have managed to slow down Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, but that’s about it, according to a new UN report obtained by the AP. “Iran’s circumvention of sanctions across all areas … is willful and continuing,” the report concludes. The regime has successfully used front companies, complicated financial transactions, and just plain disguised shipments to smuggle in verboten materials, and illicitly sell conventional arms.
Most of Iran’s conventional arms exports go through Syria. The report also found that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps is having an increasing influence on decisions involving the nuclear and missile programs. The UN has frozen assets on 15 companies with ties to the Guard, but “given the use of aliases and the ease with which front companies engaged in procurement … can be established, Iran is successfully evading the impact” of these sanctions.
