From 2002 to 2005, tobacco made up nearly half of the value of all U.S. exports to Iran, according to U.S. Census data. The $50 million worth of tobacco products shipped there in 2005 – the last year for which data are available – is nearly three times that of the next largest category, pharmaceuticals, and over six times the amount of all other farm products.

"It's obviously not what was intended," says Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat who chairs the House Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade Subcommittee. Sherman, who has pushed for tougher sanctions on Iran, says the embargo was eased because of concern over deprivation. "That's why it was about food and medicine. It would have been ironic to put in medicine and cigarettes."

Iran is not short of cash – as a top oil producer, the regime makes billions of dollars off its petroleum sales, enough to amply fund the nuclear and missile programs that have Washington on edge. But its leaders are nonetheless making a killing off the tobacco trade, as sales are run by a government monopoly (although many cigarettes are smuggled in). According to Iran's IRNA news service, 50 billion cigarettes are consumed there annually, resulting in some 50,000 deaths each year.

"Maybe we're trying to stop the Iranians by giving them lung cancer," quips one terrorism expert.

Top U.S. Exports to Iran, 2005 (in thousands of dollars)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Photo: Middle Eastern countries have raised concerns about the dangers of smoking, as in this poster from the Qatar Ministry of Public Health.