China's missile material shipment to Iran fans tensions over Tehran's nuclear aims

By Global Watch | 2025-01-28

China reportedly plans to send Iran a key ingredient needed to produce propellants for ballistic missiles amid rising fears that Tehran is ramping up efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

Two Iranian-flagged cargo ships, the Golbon and the Jairan, are set to transport more than 1,000 tons of sodium perchlorate -- a critical ingredient for producing solid missile propellant -- on a journey from China to Iran in the coming weeks, The Financial Times (FT) reported on January 22, citing intelligence from unidentified security officials in two Western countries.

Once made into a propellant, it could fuel 260 mid-range Iranian missiles, the report said, adding that the chemicals are being shipped to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite arm of the Iranian military.

The chemicals were loaded onto the Golbon at Taicang, a port just north of Shanghai, with a destination of Bandar Abbas, an Iranian port on the Persian Gulf, the FT said.

According to the newspaper, the officials could not say if Beijing was aware of the shipments. The Chinese embassy in Washington stated it was "not familiar" with the situation, it said.

The Iranian government declined to comment, the report added.

"China was and is still the main supply chain for Iran for everything needed to build weapons," Ronen Solomon, an Israeli security analyst who follows Iran, told The Wall Street Journal, which also confirmed the propellant shipment.

Missile stockpile depleted

The delivery only heighten tensions in the Middle East as Iran ramps up its nuclear activities.

A revamp of Iran's Fordo enrichment plant would lead to an increase in the rate of production of uranium enriched up to 60%, closer to the 90% needed to make a nuclear weapon, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said last month.

Iran insists on its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and denies it is seeking an atomic weapon capability.

Tehran has been increasingly reliant on Beijing after Israeli strikes battered its missile program in October.

The Israeli strikes, which were a response to an October 1 attack in which Iran launched about 200 ballistic missiles into Israel, destroyed the majority of Iran's planetary mixers -- specialized machines essential for blending solid propellant components that are difficult to replace, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Tehran has also depleted its missile stockpile by providing close-range ballistic missiles to Russia to help it in its war against Ukraine.