Japanese businessmen arrested for selling Israeli equipment to Iran

TOKYO -- Israeli military equipment appears to have been copied and exported to Iran, authorities said on Monday.

The authorities said Japanese businessmen copied the design of anti-tank designator and targeting systems and illegally exported them to Teheran. Two man, identified as, Ichiro Takahashi and Tsuneo Ishida, have been arrested and charged with the illegal export.

The two men were owners of the now-defunct trading company in Tokyo, Sun Beam K.K. They were charged with illegally shipping 3,100 dials for sighting devices used in antitank rocket launchers to an Iranian state-run Iran Electronics Industries, in April and December 1995.

Japanese sources said several Japanese companies were involved in smuggling the Israeli equipment to Teheran. They said Israeli agents provided the design of the equipment for production and export to Iran.

Authorities said they could not confirm this. But industry sources said defensive Israeli military equipment had been quietly exported to Iran in the early 1990s in an unsuccessful attempt by the Jewish state to restore ties with the Islamic regime.

The effort was halted by the United States, the sources said. An Israeli businessman, Nahum Manbar, is serving a 16-year sentence in the Jewish state after he was convicted of trying to sell material for the use of chemical weapons. Manbar has denied the charge and said he sold weapons to Teheran with Israeli government permission.