Iran is undertaking a number of drills, such as switching flags, names, and ownership of its freight ship transport, in order to avoid US export controls at sea. A Newyork Times inquiry published Tuesday exposed that Iranian water transport beneath US permit efforts has not banned the ayatollahs from sailing around the world to trade smuggled goods.
Iran efforts to avoid sanctions have increased in recent months as a fourth round of permits is scheduled to be voted on in UN Security Council on Wednesday. In addition to international permits against the regime, the US has instituted its own sanctions forbidding companies doing business in US to have contact with Iranian companies from various industries, including shipping.
Iran Shipping Lines, known as IRISL, is in control of 123 registered ships or water transport but a mere 46 of them are listed on paper under the ownership of the company or its subsidiaries. The other 73 ships in the company’s control are listed under shell companies raise in order to avoid US blacklist and remaining 4 ships were sunk.
The shell companies are located far from Iran, in places like Malta, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Germany, and even Isles of Man. However, the NYT report revealed that the American intelligence has discovered the connection between most of the ships save 10 and Irisl.
The company IHS Fairplay, a British-based company that issues merchant vessels their unique identification numbers and tracks them throughout their lifetimes and whose data analysis revealed the gap in Irisl ship registrations, discovered that the 10 unaccounted for ships are currently operated by newly established companies located in Irisl amenities in Tehran, and not at the address presented to IHS Fairplay.
