Treasury lists Chinese, Iranians for WMD

WASHINGTON, April 7 (UPI) -- The U.S. Treasury Department listed a Chinese national and six Iranian businesses Tuesday as agents engaged in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The designation falls under Executive Order 13382, a 2005 measure that freezes the assets of alleged distributors of weapons of mass destruction.

"Today we are acting under our Security Council and other international obligations to prevent these entities from abusing the financial system to pursue centrifuge and missile technology for Iran," said Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey.

In 2006, the Treasury Department listed China's LIMMT for providing material support to the Iranian military for use in its missile program. The Tuesday decision names Li Fangwei, aka Karl Lee, as a manager for LIMMT who established commercial aliases to continue those dealings.

Also included in the Tuesday designations were several Iranian manufacturing companies that the department said were linked to the Iranian Defense Industries Organization or the Iranian Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics for contributing to the Iranian nuclear and missile programs.

The U.N. Security Council had designated one of the companies, Khorasan Metallurgy Industries, for alleged involvement in the production of uranium centrifuges and ballistic missiles.

The Tuesday measures freeze the assets of the entities listed that fall within U.S. jurisdiction.

--

(This story corrects "206" to "2006" in the fourth paragraph and clarifies references to the Treasury Department in the fourth and fifth paragraphs.)