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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2013
Phone: (212) 554-3296
UANI Launches MINERVA Iranian Vessel Tracking System
Analysts in New York, London, Hong Kong Now Tracking and Monitoring Iran's Vessel Fleet 24/7
[Click here to learn more about MINERVA, and view examples of illicit Iranian shipping schemes.]
New York, NY - Today, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) announced the launch of its Maritime Intelligence Network and Rogue Vessel Analysis (MINERVA) system. MINERVA is a new UANI initiative that tracks Iranian vessels and identifies and exposes the Iranian regime's efforts to smuggle oil and cargo in circumvention of international sanctions.
Through MINERVA, UANI conducts 24-hour real-time tracking and course prediction of Iranian and Iran-related vessels, including clandestine vessels, anywhere in the world. MINERVA analysts are located in New York, London and Hong Kong, allowing for around-the-clock monitoring. MINERVA is able to detect nefarious Iranian shipping activities as they occur, and UANI in turn notifies relevant authorities of illicit actions occurring in their jurisdictions.
MINERVA collects, processes, and analyzes raw vessel data such as speed, heading, identity, draught, and destination information. The system then correlates this shipping data with supplementary data from maritime industry sources, and employs algorithmic analysis to create distinct vessel and shipping route profiles and predict the courses and destinations of otherwise undetectable vessels of the Iranian regime.
MINERVA is the next phase of UANI's Shipping Campaign. The campaign has resulted in dozens of shipping and maritime-related companies including all thirteen of the world's major classification societies, multiple shipping lines, and numerous countries ending their provision of services to the Iranian shipping industry.
UANI developed MINERVA in response to the Iranian regime's increasing efforts to make vessels "dark," and avoid being detected by traditional vessel-tracking systems. For example, vessels of Iran's National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) are now regularly disabling their on-board location-transmissions systems, or "spoofing" their locations, destinations, and/or identities by inputting false identifying information.
MINERVA's unique capabilities allow UANI to monitor such vessels, and take relevant action to halt illegal Iran-sponsored shipping schemes.
Said UANI CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace:
Iran's smuggling schemes thrive on deception and disguise. Our analysts are now on watch, 24 hours a day, to uncover the clandestine activities of Iranian vessels and identify the regime's unscrupulous partners in the international shipping industry.
When the regime's smuggling schemes are identified and exposed, maritime and port authorities can no longer deny knowledge of the origins of illicit Iranian vessels, shipments, and cargoes in their respective jurisdictions. The moment Iran's shipping schemes are brought to light is the same moment maritime and port authorities begin to turn the vessels away.
UANI has long highlighted the shipping industry as an area where the international community can further pressure Iran. In a 2012 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 learn more about MINERVA, and view examples of illicit Iranian shipping schemes.
Click here to learn more about UANI's Shipping Campaign.
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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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