U.S. security raised for ships calling Iraqi ports

The Coast Guard found that Iraqi ports “failed to maintain effective anti-terrorism measures” and vessels require onboard security if they’re bound for the U.S.    The Coast Guard will require U.S.-bound ships that call on Iraqi ports to raise their onboard security.
   The agency said during a visit to Iraq’s ports in August 2017 that the country had “failed to maintain effective anti-terrorism measures in its ports and that its designated authority’s oversight, access control, security monitoring, security training programs, and security plans drills and exercises are all deficient.”
   Corrective recommendations were made by the Coast Guard, but a follow-up visit on Oct. 14, 2017, indicated that all the Iraqi ports had failed to improve their anti-terrorism measures with the exception of the Al-Basrah Oil Terminal, Khor Al Amaya Oil Terminal and Al Maqal Terminal 14 (also known as the North America Western Asia Holdings Facility).
   Starting Oct. 26, the Coast Guard will require any U.S.-bound vessel that visited an Iraqi port during its last five port calls, with the exception of the Al-Basrah Oil Terminal, the Khor Al Amaya Oil Terminal and Al Maqal Terminal 14, to show records that both landside and waterside access points of the vessel were sufficiently guarded while in an Iraqi port.
   When those vessels arrive in a U.S. port, the Coast Guard may further require the vessel to ensure each access point is guarded by armed, private security guards and that they have total visibility of the exterior (both landside and waterside) of the vessel while in U.S. ports. 
   “Conditions of entry are intended to protect the United States from vessels arriving from countries that have been found to have deficient anti-terrorism port measures in place,” the Coast Guard said in a Federal Register notice published Friday.
   In addition to Iraq, the Coast Guard has imposed similar vessel security measures for ships that have previously called ports in Cambodia, Cameroon, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Micronesia, Nauru, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Syria, Timor-Leste, Venezuela and Yemen.