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The fourth round of UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme may impact trade in the UAE, which has longstanding ties to Iranian markets.
The 15-nation UN security council yesterdayapproved measures targeting Iranian shipping and companies controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The new sanctions also include tighter restrictions on Iranian banks operating abroad.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said the package represented “the most significant sanctions Iran has ever faced”. It had been under discussion for the past five months by the US, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia as their negotiations with a defiant Tehran foundered.
The UAE has repeatedly stated that it would implement and abide by any and all UN resolutions.
Cargo vessels and tankers bound for Iran with goods ranging from flat-screen televisions to petrol use a number of trans-shipment and storage hubs in the Gulf and southern Africa. They include the Gulf’s biggest container port at Jebel Ali in Dubai, the world’s second-biggest marine bunkering port in Fujairah and the South African port of Durban. US officials say ships dropping anchor at those ports include some that are owned by the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and an increasing number of vessels that are clandestinely owned by the group.
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UN Sanctions Take Aim At Iran's Shipping Industry
Radio Liberty
As the UN Security Council prepared to debate new sanctions on Iran, it became clear that Iran's shipping industry would be one of the main targets.
A draft of the sanctions proposal leaked to the media contained tough language appealing to all states to help keep track of the activities of Iran's state-owned fleet of vessels.
Specifically, the leaked text requested "all member states to communicate to the [Sanctions] Committee any information available on transfers or activity by...vessels owned or operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL)...that may have been undertaken in order to evade the sanctions."
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Iran uses shell firms to keep military cargo secret
On January 24, 2009, a freighter with a Hong Kong flag arrived in the South African port of Durban. The stop was not on its route. It stayed just long enough to pick up clandestine cargo: a Bladerunner 51 speedboat that can be armed with torpedoes and used as a fast-attack craft in the Persian Gulf.
The name on the ship’s side as it made for Iranian port of Bandar Abbas was the Diplomat, and its papers showed it was owned by a company called Starry Shine Ltd. Six months earlier, the Diplomat had been the Iran Mufateh, part of a fleet owned by state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, known as Irisl.
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Iran nuclear sanctions not enough
LA Times
The Obama administration says the new economic sanctions against Iran adopted by the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday are the toughest ever against that country's military and financial interests, and demonstrate a consensus among the major powers that Tehran must not develop a nuclear weapon. Though this may be accurate, it is also true that the sanctions are far from crippling and are unlikely to be much more effective than the previous three rounds in persuading Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program.
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