Western Intelligence says Iran is Rearming Despite UN Sanctions, with China’s Help
By Melissa Bell, Gianluca Mezzofiore
Iran appears to be stepping up the rebuilding of its ballistic missile program, despite the reintroduction last month of United Nations sanctions that ban arms sales to the country and ballistic missile activity.
European intelligence sources say several shipments of sodium perchlorate, the main precursor in the production of the solid propellant that powers Iran’s mid-range conventional missiles, have arrived from China to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas since the so-called “snapback” mechanism was triggered at the end of September.
Those sources say the shipments, which began arriving on September 29, contain 2,000 tons of sodium perchlorate bought by Iran from Chinese suppliers in the wake of its 12-day conflict with Israel in June. The purchases are believed to be part of a determined effort to rebuild the Islamic Republic’s depleted missile stocks. Several of the cargo ships and Chinese entities involved are under sanctions from the United States.
The deliveries come after more-than-a-decade-old UN sanctions were restored by the snapback mechanism – a provision for Iranian breaches of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal to monitor its nuclear program.
Under the sanctions re-imposed on Tehran last month, Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN member states must also prevent the provision to Iran of materials that could contribute to the country’s development of a nuclear weapons delivery system, which experts say could include ballistic missiles.
States are also required to prevent the provision to Iran of assistance in the manufacture of arms. China, along with Russia, opposed the reimposition of the sanctions, saying it undermines efforts for a “diplomatic settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue.”
While the shipped substance – sodium perchlorate – is not specifically named in UN documents on materials banned for export to Iran, it is a direct precursor of ammonium perchlorate, a listed and prohibited oxidizer used in ballistic missiles. However, experts say that the sanctions’ failure to explicitly prohibit the chemical may leave China room to argue that it is not in violation of any UN ban.
CNN has followed the journeys of several cargo ships identified by the intelligence sources as being involved in the latest deliveries of sodium perchlorate from Chinese ports to Iran, using ship tracking data and the social media of their crew. Many of those vessels appear to have gone back and forth several times between China and Iran since the end of April. The sources say their crew seem to be employed by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and their regular social media posts provide a trail of their stops on the China to Iran journey.
An aerial view of the Port of Bandar Abbas in the strait of Hormuz, December 10, 2023.
Among them is the MV Basht, already sanctioned by the US, which left the Chinese port of Zhuhai on September 15, arrived in Bandar Abbas on September 29 and since returned to China.
Following a similar route, the Barzin traveled from Gaolan on October 2 and arrived in Bandar Abbas on October 16, before leaving for China again on October 21.
It’s not clear if the Chinese government is aware of the shipments. In response to a question from CNN about the transactions, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that, while he was “not familiar with the specific situation,” China has “consistently implemented export controls on dual-use items in accordance with its international obligations and domestic laws and regulations.”
“We want to emphasize that China is committed to peacefully resolving the Iranian nuclear issue through political and diplomatic means and opposes sanctions and pressure,” the spokesperson continued, adding that Beijing viewed the return of sanctions under the snapback mechanism as “unconstructive” and a “serious setback” in efforts to “resolve the Iranian nuclear issue.”
Similar shipments had previously been reported, but their intensification since the 12-day war – when the Israeli military targeted at least a third of the surface-to-surface launchers that fire Iran’s medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) – suggests a renewed eagerness on the part of the Islamic Republic to arm itself.
“Iran needs much more sodium perchlorate now to replace the missiles expended in the war and to increase production. I would expect large shipments to Iran as it tries to rearm, just as I would expect Israel and the US to race to replace the interceptors and munitions that were expended,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Project at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
The best way to consider the current moment, he told CNN, is as a pause in hostilities, as each side seeks to rearm.
“Two thousand tons of sodium perchlorate are only enough for about 500 missiles. That’s a lot, but Iran was planning on producing something like 200 missiles a month before the war and now must replace all the missiles that either Israel destroyed or it used,” he said.
Long-standing ties
China has long been a diplomatic and economic ally for sanctions-hit Iran, decrying “unilateral” US sanctions against the country and buying up most of Iran’s oil exports, despite not reporting purchases of Iranian oil for several years.
That energy trade relies on a network of vessels that filter Iranian oil to independent refineries in coastal China, often through intermediary countries, according to analysts, who note this practice keeps refinement separate from Chinese state-owned enterprises that would be vulnerable to US sanctions. These so-called teapot refineries are known to work with what’s often referred to as a dark fleet of tankers that use concealing tactics to smuggle sanctioned goods.
Oil storage tanks at a petrochemical production base on the outskirts of Shanghai, China, in June.
European security sources believe a similarly opaque system, involving front companies that are little more than fake numbers and billing addresses, has been used to keep the sodium perchlorate flowing to Iran. As have more legitimate companies, including two already sanctioned by the US back in April for their part in a “network procuring ballistic missile propellant ingredients on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).” Most of the companies involved are based in the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian, according to information from the intelligence sources.
Original source: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/29/middleeast/iran-rebuilding-ballistic-weapons-program-intl