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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2012
Phone: (212) 554-3296
UANI Applauds Russia Maritime Register of Shipping 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 We trust and expect that RS will quickly fulfill this pledge, and we will at that point list it as having withdrawn from business with Iran.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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United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran should concern every American and be unacceptable to the community of nations. Since 1979 the Iranian regime, most recently under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's leadership, has demonstrated increasingly threatening behavior and rhetoric toward the US and the West. Iran continues to defy the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations in their attempts to monitor its nuclear activities. A number of Arab states have warned that Iran's development of nuclear weapons poses a threat to Middle East stability and could provoke a regional nuclear arms race. In short, the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran is a danger to world peace.
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.
The Objectives of United Against a Nuclear Iran
- Inform the public about the nature of the Iranian regime, including its desire and intent to possess nuclear weapons, as well as Iran's role as a state sponsor of global terrorism, and a major violator of human rights at home and abroad;
- Heighten awareness nationally and internationally about the danger that a nuclear armed Iran poses to the region and the world;
- Mobilize public support, utilize media outreach, and persuade our elected leaders to voice a robust and united American opposition to a nuclear Iran;
- Lay the groundwork for effective US policies in coordination with European and other allies;
- Persuade the regime in Tehran to desist from its quest for nuclear weapons, while striving not to punish the Iranian people, and;
- Promote efforts that focus on vigorous national and international, social, economic, political and diplomatic measures.
UANI is led by an advisory board of outstanding national figures representing all sectors of our country. |
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