UANI Calls for Investigation of French Shipper CMA CGM; Applauds U.S. Congressmen for Investigating CMA CGM's Ties to Iran

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 2011
Contact: Nathan Carleton, [email protected]  
Phone: (212) 554-3296    

UANI Calls for Investigation of French Shipper CMA CGM; Applauds U.S. Congressmen for Investigating CMA CGM's Ties to Iran

New York, NY -  United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) applauds U.S. Congressmen Peter King (NY-3) and Mike Conaway (TX-11) for investigating French shipping company CMA CGM's involvement in Iranian weapons smuggling operations and urging the U.S. Treasury Department to consider levying sanctions against the shipper.
 

UANI previously called on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committee to investigate CMA CGM and also called for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to investigate CMA CGM's role in Iran business and reports that CMA CGM was responsible for shipping ballistic missile parts from North Korea to Iran, including components for the BM-25 missile.

CMA CGM is the world's third-largest container shipping company and has recently increased its Iran business even though its ships were discovered transporting more than 50 tons of weapons from Iran to terrorist organizations.  

In an op-ed published yesterday in The Washington Times entitled "Virginia is for lovers of contraband," UANI President Ambassador Mark D. Wallace and UANI Advisory Board Member Frances Townsend, former U.S. Homeland and Security Advisor, described CMA CGM's irresponsible and dangerous business practices and renewed calls to investigate CMA CGM:

In July 2009, the United Arab Emirates stopped another CMA CGM shipment of weapons from North Korea destined for Iran in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, which bans all North Korean arms exports. This time, CMA CGM apparently was fooled (again) by a false manifesto declaring the shipments to be "oil boring machines."

The international security implications of these incidents are obvious, as is the need for private-sector companies like CMA CGM to stop helping serial proliferators such as North Korea and Iran from arming the world. In the case of the North Korean shipment to Iran, it is believed that it also contained parts for the BM-25, a nuclear-capable missile based on original Russian technology with a presumed range of 2,400 miles.

This puts Western Europe and Moscow, not to mention Israel and U.S. forces in the Gulf, well within Iran's cross hairs. It is irresponsible for CMA CGM to be doing business with a brutal regime that threatens world peace, and it is even worse that the business it is doing is facilitating the worst of Iran's behavior.

In the op-ed, Ambassador Mark Wallace and Fran Townsend conclude:

Americans in Virginia and across the country can lend their voices to this effort and let corporate executives in Norfolk know that CMA CGM's irresponsible business in Iran is unacceptable. The danger of Iran is international in scope, but by acting locally, it's possible to put pressure on CMA CGM to change course.

Click here to send a message to CMA CGM.
Click here to view the image of UANI's billboard targeting CMA CGM in Norfolk, Virginia. 
Click here to read the full text of UANI's letter to CMA CGM. 

Click here to read UANI's Executive Research Report, "Iran's Exploitation of the Shipping Industry."