United Against Nuclear Iran Targets Germanischer Lloyd

IRISL containers aboard a IRISL container ship in Isreal

U.S.-based pressure group against Iran’s nuclear ambitions, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), on Thursday called on classification society Germanischer Lloyd (GL) to stop certifying Iranian ships, specifically those of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).

GL is the latest classification society targeted by the group to stop Iran operations.  Last week, French classification society Bureau Veritas announced it had ended it’s work in Iran following a similar request by UANI.  Lloyd’s Register and DNV have also halted operations.

In a letter sent GL Chairman of the Executive Board Erik van der Noordaa, UANI CEO, U.S. Ambassador Mark D. Wallace. warned that GL’s activities in Iran “violates EU sanctions that ban both transactions with IRISL and the provision of ancillary services, including certification services that facilitate Iran’s global oil trade”, and adding that GL’s operations could “run afoul of U.S. law.”  GL has received over $200,000 in contracts with the U.S. Government since 2000 according to USASPENDING.gov.

In a March 17 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, UANI identified the shipping industry an area where the international community can put additional pressure on Iran.  In the editorial, six 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. Aligned nations should prohibit international cargo shippers that service Iranian ports… from shipping to the U.S., EU and elsewhere.”

UANI, which is headed in the U.S., works with the London-based think tank, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), on the UANI-ISD Initiative, a transatlantic partnership dedicated to combatting the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran and highlighting the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran throughout the U.S. and Europe.

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