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Subject: U.S. Seeks to Halt Western Export Of 'Dual-Use' Technology to Iran; Officials
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 04:53:22 EST
Message-ID: <51.1992Nov10.045323@AmeriCast.com>

U.S. Seeks to Halt Western Export Of 'Dual-Use' Technology to
Iran; Officials Fear Such Equipment Might Aid Tehran's Military
Buildup<By R. Jeffrey Smith<Washington Post Staff Writer=

Concerned about Iran's military buildup, the Bush administration
has begun a first-of-its-kind diplomatic campaign to stop Western
nations from selling militarily useful technology to Tehran.  The
campaign is aimed at inhibiting Iran's ability to develop and
produce both conventional armaments and weapons of mass destruc-
tion, including ballistic missiles, nuclear arms and germ weapons
that Tehran is now seeking, according to U.S. officials.

By cutting off sales of advanced technology having commercial as
well as military applications, the officials said, the U.S.  ini-
tiative would unavoidably retard Iran's effort to modernize its
society and recover fully from the debilitating eight-year war
with Iraq that ended in 1988.

Moreover, one senior administration official forecast that the
effort, which has not yet been disclosed to business groups or
Congress, will be "irksome to business" because it would keep
Western purveyors of computers and other high-tech equipment out
of a major new Middle Eastern market.

A team of three senior administration officials raised the idea
during an unpublicized trip last month to Britain, France, Ger-
many, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands. The allied governments
expressed general support for new measures, but were undecided
how and when the new export controls should be imposed, according
to a U.S. official.

"It was not met with overwhelming enthusiasm," said one diplomat,
largely because of concern about the potential financial cost of
forgoing high-tech trade with Iran.

The U.S. diplomatic initiative is the first ever to target global
sales to a single Third World nation of "dual-use" technology -
technology capable of being diverted from commercial enterprises
to military applications. Previous U.S. efforts to control the
militarily useful exports of industrialized powers have been
aimed at blocking sales to groups of nations, such as the former
Soviet bloc or countries that support terrorism.

Eventually, a U.S. official said, the proposed Western controls
on trade with Iran may also be applied to other "egregious" coun-
tries such as Iraq, North Korea and Libya. U.S. officials ex-
plained they had singled out Iran for special consideration now
because of recent intelligence estimates warning that Iran could
become a major military threat to its Middle Eastern neighbors by
the end of the decade.

One official said administration concerns have been heightened by
a recent "somber, pessimistic" CIA forecast of Iran's military
ambitions, by preliminary indications that Iranian agents played
a role in the September assassination of several Kurdish offi-
cials in Berlin, and by Tehran's announcement the same month of a
plan to buy its first nuclear power plant from China.

Under the U.S. proposal, major Western nations would simply deny
all licenses for exports of "militarily sensitive" or dual-use
technology to Iran, whether or not such exports were explicitly
intended for military applications, officials said.

Congress recently approved a similar measure barring all U.S. ex-
ports of high-tech goods to Iran. The measure was included in
legislation authorizing fiscal 1993 defense spending. Previously,
the Commerce Department had no authority to block exports to Iran
of dual-use equipment ostensibly intended for commercial applica-
tions, and in the six-month period after August 1991, the depart-
ment approved 48 such shipments with a total value of more than
$180 million.

The details of which technologies would fall under the proposed
constraints are still being discussed within the administration,
officials said. But several acknowledged that the multinational
ban is meant to be so sweeping that it would inevitably slow
Iran's economic development.

"We are not interested in hurting Iran's progress. But you have
to make a choice between a military buildup and other things.
There is a cost, I don't deny it," an administration official
said.  The initiative was presented to U.S. allies last month by
Paul Cleveland, the State Department's coordinator for export
control policy; William N. Rudman, the deputy undersecretary of
defense for trade and security policy; and Joan McEntee, the act-
ing undersecretary of commerce for export administration.  Offi-
cials said it will be discussed again at a meeting of allies in
Europe later this month. They cited concerns about Iranian-backed
terrorism in declining to disclose the meeting's exact timing or
location.<02:37 11-10C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)