Iran’s Global Cat-And-Mouse Game on Sanctions – On the docks of Singapore, in the registries of Malta, and in
global shipping data, a tale of Irans efforts to dodge sanctions – by Rachel Armstrong, Stephen Grey and Mimanshu Ojha – Reuters, February 2012
“Washington and European capitals want to stop or slow Irans nuclear programme. They believe Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), which moves nearly a third of Irans exports and imports and is central to the countrys trade, plays a critical role in evading sanctions designed to stop the movement of controlled weapons, missiles and nuclear technology to and from Iran…Dozens of Iranian ships have used Singapore several hundred times in the past two years, for instance, as a stop-off on their way to other destinations such as China. The data shows that in the 48 months before U.S. sanctions began in September 2008, IRISL made 345 changes to its fleet including names, the flags ships sailed under, operators, managers and registered owners. In the 40 months since sanctions began there have been at least 878 changes, including 157 name changes, 94 changes of flag, 122 changes of operator, and 127 changes of registered ownership.
Hugh Griffiths, head of Countering Illicit TraffickingMechanism Assessment Projects at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, says whats unique about those changes is their pace and scale. Normally a ships name or flag changes when its owner sells it after a decade or so. In the Iranian case, none of these apply because its not based on the normal commercial reasons youd expect, he said. Nothing on this scale has ever been seen before in recent history.
Related Reuters Special Report: Chinese firm helps Iran spy on citizens
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