UANI Applauds Russia Maritime Register of Shipping for Ending Its Certification of Iranian Vessels

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2012
Contact: Nathan Carleton, [email protected]
Phone: (212) 554-3296  

UANI Applauds Russia Maritime Register of Shipping for Ending Its Certification of Iranian Vessels

New York, NY - On Wednesday, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) applauded Russia Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) for ending its certification of Iranian vessels.

Last month, UANI publicly called on RS to end its certification and other maritime services to Iranian vessels, including those owned by sanctioned Iranian entities.

RS and UANI then entered into discussions regarding RS's work. As a result of those discussions, RS has stated to UANI that "the decision has been taken to suspend RS activities in Iran, comprising inter alia the suspension of all shipping certification and related services to IRISL vessels (including MV TOUR) and offshore structures including oil rigs. The process of suspension will be completed as soon as practicable and possible."

UANI accepts this pledge, and applauds RS. RS joins the prominent shipping services Bureau Veritas, Germanischer Lloyd, and ClassNK in choosing to stop certifying Iranian vessels in response to UANI.

Said UANI CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace:

It is quite significant that Russia's leading classification society will now refuse to do business with the IRISL. Iran's friends are becoming fewer.

We thank the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping for discussing and resolving this issue with us, and we applaud its decision. We trust and expect that RS will quickly fulfill this pledge, and we will at that point list it as having withdrawn from business with Iran. UANI's shipping campaign has been enormously successful, as RS joins Bureau Veritas, Germanischer Lloyd, ClassNK, and others in ending its business with Iran.

Regrettably, the Korean Register of Shipping now stands out as a true outlier in continuing to certify Iranian vessels. KR should be able to do what its counterparts in France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and elsewhere have done, and stop helping the Iranian regime bypass international sanctions.

It is disingenuous to portray business with Iran as an exercise in public safety, given how many companies and individuals stand to profit from it. There is no safe way to do business with Iran, and that is especially true for a shipper, given the regime's regular tactics of falsifying cargoes and sending arms to terrorists. The Iranian regime is rapidly running out of business partners and becoming more and more isolated from the rest of the world. The international community must impose a full economic blockade on the Iranian regime, and force it to choose between having a nuclear weapon or having a functional economy.

UANI has highlighted the shipping industry as an area where the international community can further pressure Iran. In a March 17 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, six UANI board members wrote that "the world must deny Iran's access to international shipping, a move that would severely affect the regime given its dependence on global trade and seaborne crude oil exports."

Click here to read UANI's Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, "Total Sanctions Might Stop Iran."
Click here to visit UANI's Shipping Campaign page.

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