On Tuesday, United
Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) called on the Korean Register of
Shipping (KRS) to stop certifying Iranian shipping vessels, specifically
those of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and
National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).
As the Wall
Street Journal reported yesterday, KRS is one of the only
classification societies in the world that continues to provide Iranian
vessels with safety certificates. The prominent European shipping
services Bureau
Veritas and Germanischer
Lloyd recently stopped certifying Iranian vessels in response to
UANI.
In a June 25 letter to Oh Kong-gyun, KRS Chairman & CEO, UANI CEO,
Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, explained how KRS’s activities help Iran
circumvent multilateral sanctions, and violate sanctions imposed by the
Republic of Korea:
KRS’s irresponsible decision to provide certification services at a time
when responsible businesses are leaving Iran undermines the efforts of
the international community to isolate the Iranian regime and directly
aids IRISL’s deceptive and illegal activities.
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As you are no doubt aware, in September 2010, the ROK government joined
with the U.S. and the EU to sanction entities like IRISL. Currently,
however, KRS is providing classification services to 17 ROD-managed
vessels according to KRS’s publicly accessible “Register of Ships.”
(Korean Register of Shipping: Register of Ships, input: “Rahbaran”) If
blacklisted entities are able to change their names in order to
circumvent sanctions then the entire rationale for an effective
sanctions regime collapses.
KRS is also the leading provider of certification services to NITC, a
subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company and an entity with known
ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”), the group
directly responsible for overseeing Iran’s nuclear weapons program and
terrorist activities. According to publicly available information KRS
provides services to 19 NITC vessels, nearly half of the NITC’s
39-vessel fleet. Numerous countries around the world have added NITC to
the list of suspect entities with which they will no longer do business.
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.”
UANI has requested a response from KRS by July 2, 2012.
Click here
to read UANI’s full letter to KRS.
Click here
to send a message to KRS.
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.
