Iranian company denies UN report on arm dealings with Sudan

November 14, 2009 (WASHINGTON) – An Iranian businessman denied a UN report accusing his company supplying sophisticated military equipment to the Sudanese government.

A UN panel of experts established to monitor compliance with UN Security Council resolutions relating to the Darfur region has found that that unmanned aerial vehicles used in Darfur were equipped with video surveillance technology ordered by a company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

After investigating the source of video recorders it turned out to be sold by Millennium Product Company LLC, with a sales manager the report named as Mojtaba Sadegbi and managing director Saeid Mousaei, both Iranian nationals.

The report said the U.N. monitors visited the company in June. A few hours later Sadegbi and Mousaei left the country.

However, none of the individuals were accused of having links to the Iranian government.

In an interview with Asre Iran news website the head of the Millennium Product Company LLC expressed “astonishment” over the UN report

“Our company has not provided any economic deal not only with Sudan but not with any other African country so far” Mousaei said.

“What the report has identified as UK-made binoculars were 60 professional flash memory cards to fix the traffic. We bought the cards from the UK and sold to Iran through a completely legal procedure which was completely civil” he added.

But the panel has stated that the video surveillance technology originated in Britain and is “not used for civilian purposes”.

For this reason, the panel said, the Iranian behind the sale of the video devices to Sudan had to know their ultimate purpose.

Regarding the attempts by the panel to meet them, Mousaei said that after seeking advice that “UN officials have no rights in the [United Arab] Emirates to visit the companies and ask for documents willfully, and that this process should be carried out by the police”.

“Therefore, pursuing the law, we did not respond them and handed over our documents to the Dubai police so that they could investigate the matter. After the competition of the investigation on the documents, the Dubai authorities admitted that no illegal measure had been carried out and no commodity had been exported to Sudan and the case was closed” he added.

The Iranian businessman said that the findings of the panel “were drawn up on the basis of an inaccurate report of the local officials of this organization who did not succeed in talking to the managers of the company”.

The UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution 1591 prohibits the Sudanese government from moving arms into Darfur or conducting offensive military flights over the region, however the report concluded that the embargo has been routinely ignored.

Owing to backing by China and Russia, the council is not expected to take any action.

(ST)