Photo Gallery Operation 'Ventilator'
Police in Germany arrested two men in Hamburg in August on suspicion of circumventing European Union sanctions to deliver equipment to Iran that was ultimately used in the country's nuclear program.
Some 1,800 valves have been provided that are of vital importance for the heavy-water reactor being built by the Iranian government in Arak. With the aid of a similar heavy water reactor, India was able to produce fissionable material for its first nuclear warhead.
The emergence of any further such sales could prove highly embarrassing for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, who is pictured here during a 2011 meeting in Tehran with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Merkel and Westerwelle have promoted sanctions as the best way to prevent a war in the Middle East.
The chancellor's main argument is that sanctions are an effective approach. It's a line of reasoning she uses to counter the warmongers surrounding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Just last week, the Israeli leader adamantly warned of the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran.
