Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States, in wake of failed negotiations, has disclosed that Iran procured American components for the production of weapons-grade uranium.

Federal prosecutors have released details of Iran’s acquisition of pressure transducers from the United States that advanced Teheran’ nuclear program. A 10-count indictment named a Chinese national as well as an Iranian and two Iranian companies that allegedly supplied thousands of parts with nuclear applications, including those for centrifuges, since 2005.

“They are accused of conspiring to export, and exporting, highly sensitive U.S. manufactured goods with nuclear applications to Iran,” the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts said.

In a statement for Dec. 5, the district attorney identified the Chinese national as Sidhai Cheng, arrested in Britain in February 2014 and pending extradition to the United States. The other defendants included Iranian national Seyed Abolfazl Shahab Jamili as well as two Iranian companies, Nicaro Engineering and Eyvaz Technic Manufacturing.

The indictment was released as the administration of President Barack Obama asserted that Iran froze its nuclear program. In early December, both Vice President Joseph Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry said Teheran — also accused of acquiring Western components for its heavy water nuclear reactor at Arak — agreed to halt such areas as centrifuge production and uranium enrichment.

“It’s frozen the program,” Biden told a Washington think tank on Dec. 6. “It’s given us a shot for a peaceful solution.”

Cheng was said to have worked for Iran since 2005. The indictment said he sold Jamili, the Iranian national who escaped arrest, “thousands of parts with nuclear applications,” and in 2009 worked with others in China to procure hundreds of U.S. pressure transducers manufactured by MKS Instruments for Eyvaz. The transducers, banned for export to Teheran, were said to have been used in gas centrifuges at the Iranian uranium enrichment plant at Natanz.

“Those transducers can be seen in publicly available photographs of Natanz, an Iranian uranium nuclear enrichment facility, with then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, showing numerous transducers attached to Iran’s gas centrifuge cascades,” the district attorney’s office said.

Eyvaz has been a leading supplier to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile program. In 2011, The European Union imposed sanctions on Eyvaz, which supplied vacuum equipment to Natanz as well as Fordow, an underground nuclear facility.

“Iran has sought and illicitly obtained MKS pressure transducers to use in its centrifuge plants,” the district attorney’s office said. “Because pressure transducers can be used in gas centrifuges to convert natural uranium into a form that can be used in nuclear weapons, they are subject to export controls and cannot be shipped to China without an export license or to Iran at all.”

  Chinese national in deal to advance ‘frozen’ nuclear program, U.S. district attorney indicts Iranians, WorldTribune.com