THE United Nations-mandated persecution of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL), driven mostly by the US Treasury edicts, is revealing how exposed supply chain logistics is to global political risk, says the UK's Transport Intelligence.
The Hong Kong Government is now planning to pass legislation to close down and seize the assets of 20 local businesses, which it believes have been acting as front companies for Iranian interests, said the report.
The recent move against Hong Kong forwarders and shipping lines who have been accused of being fronts either for the Iranian state shipping line or for weapons procurement organisations, said its report.
"Responding to the publication of an American Treasury Department list of companies it accused, Hong Kong is essentially looking to fulfil China's promise to comply with sanctions on the Tehran regime," it said. The US Treasury said that American citizens could not to business with companies on the list.
IRISL, long troubled in the industry, now lives a life of evading sanctions, re-flagging ships and moving ownership to front companies different countries. IRISL has also had a number of its ships seized by Malta to Singapore over the past year for non-payment of loans, though much of that has been lifted.
IRISL expanded into containers over the past 10 years, but today western powers are bent on putting it out of business and make it difficult, if not impossible for Iran to engage in international trade.
The US accuses IRISL of moving missiles and nuclear weapons technology from North Korea to Iran, but such accusations are thought to be part of a "wider agenda of suppressing Iran's economy" to pressure the Tehran government into halting its nuclear development programme, said the British maritime agency.
IRISL expanded aggressively into the container market in the past decade. In aiming to put IRISL out of business the western powers are looking to both strip the Iranian regime of a useful business asset and to make it more difficult to import and export from Iran.
Iranians now look to Persian Gulf ports solve their transport problems, and in turn create problems for places such as the United Arab Emirates, which is now under pressure to boycott Iranian trade.