Financial Times:

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington and Kathrin Hille in Taipei

Two Iranian cargo vessels carrying a crucial chemical ingredient for missile propellant will sail from China to Iran over the next few weeks, according to intelligence from security officials in two western countries.

The Iranian-flagged ships — the Golbon and the Jairan — are expected to carry more than 1,000 tonnes of sodium perchlorate, which is used to make ammonium perchlorate, the main ingredient for solid propellant for missiles.

Two of the officials said the sodium perchlorate could produce 960 tonnes of ammonium perchlorate, which makes up 70 per cent of the propellant for solid-fuel missiles. That amount of ammonium perchlorate could produce 1,300 tonnes of propellant, enough to fuel 260 mid-range Iranian missiles such as the Kheibar Shekan or Haj Qassem, the officials added.

Ammonium perchlorate is among chemicals controlled by the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international anti-proliferation body.

The chemicals were being shipped to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the elite arm of the Iranian military, two of the officials said.

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