Port Authority Campaign

Map of U.S. and Canadian Ports Serving Companies with Operations in Iran

Click on the map to learn which ports are providing services to companies also operating in Iran. Click on your local port to send a message to the port authority to take action.

 

UANI launched its Port Authority Campaign to ensure that any shipping line or maritime entity that continues to do business with Iranian entities (docking at Iranian ports, having offices in Iran, or exporting and importing products to and from Iran - precluding humanitarian shipments) is denied access to North American ports.

As the UANI's Wall Street Journal Ports Op-ed illustrates, America's ports have a pivotal role to play in the sanctions effort against Iran. Access to international shipping is vital to the Iranian regime’s ability to advance its nuclear program and terrorist activities worldwide, and to sustain its sanctions-hit economy through global trade.

In January 2013, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2013, which contains a provision that authorizes sanctions against any person who knowingly supports port operators in Iran. This NDAA provision builds upon the June 2011 sanctioning of Iran's main port operator, the Tidewater Middle East Co. Tidewater was blacklisted in June 2011 for being controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which manages the regime's nuclear and ballistic-missile programs. Tidewater operates all of Iran's major ports, including Bandar Abbas, through which 90% of Iran's container traffic passes.

IRGC-controlled ports serve as critical gateways for Iran to import sensitive material for its sanctioned nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as to export arms to its terrorist proxies and allies. In this illicit enterprise, the Iranian regime either uses its own fleet or exploits international shippers to serve its own ends.

Yet, despite the sanctions on Iran's ports sector and those that support it through the payment of port docking fees, many of the world's largest shipper irresponsibly continue operating at Bandar Abbas and other IRGC-controlled ports. At the same time, these companies continue to have unfettered access to American and Canadian ports.

Shippers and maritime entities with business operations in both Iran and the U.S. must be presented with a clear choice: either cease all business with Iran, or stop doing business with the United States and its allies. Access to North American ports should be contingent on the cessation of any Iranian business linkages. Any firm operating in Iran, particularly in vital economic sectors such as shipping, is simply buttressing the regime and contributing to its economic viability and survival.

America's ports can help in the sanctions effort against Iran. Through the 2010 Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (CISADA) and the Iran Threat Reduction Act of 2012 (ITRA) Congress has explicitly invite state and local governments and agencies to assist with the implementation of federal sanctions policy. State legislatures, local governments and port authorities should therefore take action to ensure that ports under their control effectively bar shippers that make port calls at Iranian ports.

UANI has also proposed model federal legislation, “Sanctioning Shippers to Iranian Ports Act of 2013,” which would block international shippers and vessels from U.S. waters that have docked at Iranian ports or active in the Iranian seaport sector.