UNITED NATIONS — Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have confiscated a number of items Iran may have sought for its nuclear program, a development that diplomats said showed how enforcement of UN sanctions against Tehran is steadily improving. One of the items heading to Iran but confiscated by Bahrain was carbon fiber, the diplomats told Reuters, a dual-use material UN experts have said would be crucial if Iran was to develop more advanced nuclear enrichment centrifuge technology. Bahrain's and UAE's confidential reports to the UN Security Council's Iran sanctions committee are politically significant, envoys said on condition of anonymity, since they highlight how more and more states are enforcing the sanctions and making it increasingly difficult for Tehran to flout them. “The fact that these two countries are now taking steps to enforce the sanctions and reporting those steps to the UN is remarkable by itself,” a senior Security Council diplomat said. “It shows that the UN sanctions regime can work. UAE has been one of Iran's enablers. Iran's becoming more isolated.” Dubai has long been one of Iran's main transit hubs because of its busy port and position as a key financial center. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank wrote in July 2011 that Dubai was “a top source of Iranian imports and a key transshipment point for goods — legal and illegal — destined for the Islamic republic.” Among the firms involved in the procurement efforts the UAE uncovered was Kalaye Electric Co. in Tehran, the former center of Iran's enrichment centrifuge research and development program, envoys said. There were no details available on the items confiscated by UAE authorities, but the three items Bahrain intercepted included carbon fiber, a dual-use material that the UN expert panel identified in a May 2012 report as key for the further development of Iran's uranium enrichment centrifuge program. It remains unclear if Iran wanted the carbon fiber for its nuclear program, diplomats said. — Reuters
