UANI Launches Ports Authority Campaign

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 15, 2013 Contact: Nathan Carleton, press@uani.com  Phone: (212) 554-3296 UANI Launches Ports Authority Campaign Unveils Interactive Database, Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Ambassador Wallace: "America's Port Authorities Should Deny Docking Privileges to Shipping Companies that Continue to Operate in Iran" New York, NY - On Friday, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) launched its Ports Authority Campaign, and called on North American port authorities to deny docking privileges to shipping companies that operate in Iran. In an Op-Ed in today's Wall Street Journal, "Closing U.S. Ports to Iran-Tainted Shipping," UANI CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, wrote that local port authorities can and should declare their ports off limits to shippers that are at the same time accessing Iranian ports. Such declarations would in effect force shippers to end their services to and from Iran, and thereby isolate the Iranian regime and complicate its importing of raw materials for its nuclear program. UANI also today unveiled an interactive Ports Authority Database, which individuals can use to learn which U.S. and Canadian ports are providing services to shipping companies active in Iran. Interested parties can use the database to send messages to their local port authorities calling for action. As Ambassador Wallace wrote in the Wall Street Journal: At Bandar Abbas, Iran's largest port, ships bearing the distinctive "Evergreen" insignia dock and unload their cargo. On the other side of the world, Evergreen vessels make their scheduled calls at Los Angeles Harbor, the biggest container port in the United States. ... Ocean transportation is critical for the import of raw materials required for Iran's nuclear program. Cutting off access to these raw materials would hamper Tehran's nuclear drive. ... This information is hardly secret. The websites of the United Arab Shipping Company (and other shippers such as Yang Ming, based in Taiwan) openly list offices run out of Tehran or Bandar Abbas. And despite its regular business with Iranian port operators, the United Arab Shipping Company's vessels visit the ports of Baltimore, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Norfolk and Savannah (according to the company's website). These shipping companies support the IRGC and the Tehran regime by using Tidewater-operated terminals and paying port loading fees. America's port authorities should deny docking privileges to shipping companies that continue to operate in Iran. All shippers should be presented with a clear choice: Stop doing business in Iran, or stop doing business with the U.S. In particular, the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners, the Georgia Ports Authority, various Florida port authorities and the Maryland Port Administration can declare that their respective ports are off-limits to shippers active in Iran. The Federal Maritime Commission, based in Washington, D.C., can support them. The ban should include all shippers docking at Iranian ports, operating offices in Iran, or importing and exporting into and out of Iran (with exceptions on humanitarian grounds). I am confident that if they were faced with such a choice, shippers like Evergreen would choose America's business over Iran's. This would further isolate the Tehran regime. ... UANI has frequently highlighted the shipping industry as an area where the international community can further pressure Iran. In a 2012 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." Last year, all thirteen of the world's major classification societies stopped certifying Iranian vessels following UANI's campaign, including Bureau Veritas, Germanischer Lloyd, the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, the Korean Register of Shipping, the China Classification Society, and ClassNK. UANI has also announced that Barbados, Hong Kong, Moldova and Mongolia have stopped their reflagging of Iranian vessels. Click here to read the full Op-Ed, "Closing U.S. Ports to Iran-Tainted Shipping." Click here to use UANI's interactive Ports Authority Database and send messages to relevant port authorities. Click here to learn more about UANI's Shipping Campaign.   ###  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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