Iran has reportedly ordered thousands of tons of ballistic missile materials from China amid tense negotiations with the United States over the future of its nuclear program.
Ammonium perchlorate shipments — enough to fuel hundreds of ballistic missiles — will arrive in Iran in the coming months, sources familiar with the transaction told The Wall Street Journal.
Some of the rocket propellant will likely find its way to Iran-aligned militias in the region, including the Houthis in Yemen, who have been terrorizing ships passing through the Red Sea and firing missiles at Israel.
The deal with China comes as Iran looks to strengthen its military while brokering a deal with the Trump administration over its nuclear program.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday called the US “arrogant” as he rejected a revised nuclear deal that would allow Tehran to continue low-level uranium enrichment.
“The rude and arrogant leaders of America repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear program. Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?” he said in a televised speech.
After the proposal fell through, Trump warned in a social media post that “time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons.”
The rocket fuel chemicals were ordered over the past few months by an Iranian company called Pichgaman Tejarat Rafi Novin Co. from a Hong Kong-based business Lion Commodities Holdings Ltd, according to the Journal’s sources.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson told the paper that China wasn’t aware of the contract.
“The Chinese side has always exercised strict control over dual-use items in accordance with China’s export control laws and regulations and its international obligations,” the spokesperson said.
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