U.S. acts against Iranian entity

The Bush administration moved Tuesday to freeze the assets of a major Iranian bank it suspects of helping spread weapons of mass destruction.

The action against Bank Sepah, Iran’s fifth-largest state-owned financial institution, means that any of the bank’s accounts or other financial assets found in the U.S. must be frozen. Americans also are barred from doing business with it.

“Bank Sepah is the financial linchpin of Iran’s missile procurement network and has actively assisted Iran’s pursuit of missiles capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction,” said Stuart Levey, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

The Treasury Department also added to its terrorism-blocking list Bank Sepah International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank Sepah, and Ahmad Derakhshandeh, chairman and director of Bank Sepah.

The department alleges that Bank Sepah provides financial support and services to Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization as well as to two Iranian missile firms -- Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group and Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group.

The government also alleges that the bank has facilitated business between the Aerospace Industries Organization and North Korea’s chief ballistic missile-related exporter, KOMID.

The bank apparently was not accused of financing nuclear activities. Western nations suspect that Iran aims to develop a nuclear weapon, though Tehran says it wishes to produce only electricity.

On Tuesday, Iran said it had arrested a man on suspicion of selling nuclear secrets to an exiled Iranian opposition group, state radio reported.

The report didn’t identify the suspect, but said he had been working at the Iranian parliament’s Research Center, an organization that advises lawmakers on foreign and strategic issues.

“The man transferred classified information, including a bulletin on nuclear activities, to the hypocrites,” state radio said, referring to the People’s Mujahedin, or Mujahedin Khalq.

In 2002, the opposition group disclosed the existence of two previously secret nuclear facilities. Other claims by the group have not been substantiated.