Statement by UANI on French Shipping Company CMA CGM Ending Exports from Iran

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 30, 2011

Contact: Nathan Carleton, [email protected]

Phone: (212) 554-3296

Statement by UANI on French Shipping Company CMA CGM Ending Exports from Iran

New York, NY - United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, issued the following the statement regarding French shipping company CMA CGM's Wednesday announcement that it has ended its exports from Iran. UANI has been pressuring CMA CGM throughout the year, with a public campaign, billboard, Op-Ed, and research report.

For a year now, UANI has been calling on CMA CGM to end its business in Iran, given the regime's documented history of using shipping companies to illegally import nuclear technology and export arms to terrorist groups. On multiple occasions, CMA CGM vessels have been seized and found to contain such shipments.

We are pleased that CMA CGM has finally stopped exports from Iran and increased its screening processes, but given CMA CGM's checkered and dubious history of work in Iran it must go further and end all of its business there. By continuing to do work in Iran, CMA CGM is providing the regime with an economic lifeline, and risks violating international sanctions law. CMA CGM must fully pull out of Iran, and also cut its ties to Tidewater Middle East Co., an entity controlled by the Iranian regime's notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

There is no excuse for doing any business with the Iranian regime, and companies that continue to are not 'victims' of Iran's deceit, but complicit in Iran's activities.

Since March 2011, UANI has been calling on CMA CGM to end its business in Iran, where the regime has used shipping companies to transfer weapons and nuclear technology to and from Iran. At least three CMA CGM vessels have been seized and found to contain weapons headed to or from Iran.

In June, Ambassador Wallace and UANI board member Frances Townsend called on CMA CGM to end its business in Iran in a Washington Times Op-Ed. UANI also placed a billboard outside of CMA CGM's Norfolk, VA headquarters, reading "CMA CGM transports Iranian weapons bound for terrorist organizations. It's time to choose ... US OR THEM! TAKE ACTION AT UANI.COM."

Click here to send a message to CMA CGM.

Click here to view UANI's CMA CGM billboard in Norfolk, VA.

Click here to read UANI's Washington Times Op-Ed, "Virginia is for Lovers of contraband."

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