Iran Revolutionary Guard dodges sanctions: dissident

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WASHINGTON, Aug 23 (AFP): Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard uses front companies to sidestep international sanctions and import banned materials into the country, exiled Iranian dissident Alireza Jafarzadeh said Wednesday.
The Aerospace Industries Organisation (AIO), founded and operated by the guard, "carries out the construction of advanced missile systems, it also manufactures bombs, missile lauching platforms and gyroscopes," Jafarzadeh told a press conference.
The former spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran said AIO was headed by General Ahmad Vahid Dastjerdi and included nine industrial groups comprising 29 factories.
He said several AIO subsidiaries are included under sanctions covered by UN resolution 1737. Jefarzadeh provided a detailed list of people and companies in Iran he said served as cover for the Revolutionary Guard's secret activities linked to the military industry.
Jafarzadeh said the US government's decision earlier this month to include the Revolutionary Guard in its list of international terrorist organisations was "welcome" since it would impact its economic and financial activities.
He said the entire Iranian economy was slowly falling under control of the Revolutionary Guard.
Jafazadeh also said Iran was secretly building centrifuges in the central town of Natanz for uranium enrichment, which can be used to make nuclear bombs.
Iran is under threat of further UN sanctions for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment activities and cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran, already on the US government state sponsors of terrorism blacklist for more than two decades, insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful, electricity-generating purposes and not for producing nuclear bombs.