In Case You Missed It: "The Virtual Economic Blockade of Iran is Increasing"

July 2, 2013

In Case You Missed It: "The Virtual Economic Blockade of Iran is Increasing"

UANI Campaigns Reported by Reuters, Financial Times

 

 

Chinese firms drop Iran as latest U.S. sanctions bite

 

By Jonathan Saul

Reuters

July 1, 2013

 

Two top Chinese shipping lines severed ties with Iran as tough new U.S. sanctions over the country's disputed nuclear programme came into effect on Monday, leaving the country increasingly dependent on front companies and overland routes. ...

 

In a June 27 letter seen by Reuters to U.S. pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), whose board includes former CIA and British intelligence chiefs, Shanghai-headquartered CSCL said it took "trade sanctions compliance with the utmost seriousness," ceasing all Iran business from July 1. ...

 

Taiwanese lines Evergreen and Yang Ming Marine said they had pulled out, while Singapore's Pacific International Lines has also cut ties along with two top South Korean shipping firms.

 

"The departure of international shipping companies including those from China and Taiwan indicates that the virtual economic blockade of Iran is increasing," said Mark Wallace of UANI, which has targeted companies trading in Iran to end links.

 

"It is a sign that Iran has fewer and fewer friends in the international community that are willing to do business with its regime," said Wallace, a former U.S. ambassador to the UN. ...

 

Click here to read the full article.

Click here to read Ambassador Wallace's March 15 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, "Closing U.S. Ports to Iran-Tainted Shipping."

Click here to learn more about UANI's Ports Campaign.

Click here to learn more about UANI's Shipping Campaign.

 

 

Telecoms: Dealings in the danger zone

 

By Lina Saigol & Andrew England

Financial Times

July 2, 2013

 

... Touted as one of South Africa's biggest corporate successes of the post-apartheid era, MTN has over the past year been at the centre of controversies over its operations in Iran that rattled its share price and brought sharper scrutiny of its business in other frontier markets. ...

 

MTN has also been a target of campaigns by United Against Nuclear Iran, a anti-Iran lobby group in the US, which comprises several high-profile figures including James Woolsey, former director of the CIA, and Mark Wallace, former US ambassador to the UN, as well as AccessNow, an advocacy group.

 

"Even more troubling are reports that Iranian security officials are given open access to subscriber details at MTN Irancell's Tehran headquarters which have been used to acquire information on democracy activists," the lobby group wrote in a June 6 letter to Sifiso Dabengwa, MTN's chief executive.

 

MTN denies the allegations. But with 50 per cent of its shares held by foreign investors - 18 per cent of them American - it is alert to the need to protect its international reputation. ...

 

Click here to read the full article.

Click here to send a message to MTN.

Click here to view MTN at the top of UANI's "Most Wanted" list.

 

###