Group calls for CMA CGM to cut Iran ties

Group calls for CMA CGM to cut Iran ties    The group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is asking French shipping company CMA CGM to “cease all business activities in Iran” as part of its campaign to prevent the Iran from possessing nuclear weapons.
   It is the second shipping company the group has targeted. Last fall it also asked Maersk Line to stop doing business with Iran.
   In a letter to CMA CGM Chairman Jacques R. Saad' and Frank Baragona, president of U.S. subsidiary CMA CGM (America) and copied to U.S. government officials, UANI claims CMA CGM has “extensive business ties” with the U.S. government, receiving $18 million in federal contracts in the past decade. UANI calls on the federal government to debar the French carrier from eligibility for an award of federal contracts until such time that CMA CGM ends its business in Iran, and for the U.S. Attorney to investigate its business dealings in Iran.'
   UANI complains that at a time when “the international community is increasingly taking steps to isolate Iran for its pursuit of an illegal nuclear weapons program,” CMA CGM “conducts extensive business in Iran and is actively courting, indeed increasing its business activities in Iran.
   “More disturbing, is the danger that CMA CGM shipping vessels are being used, as they have in the past, to ship items into and from Iran in violation of sanctions passed by the United Nations, United States, and the European Union,' UANI said.
   “These contraband items contribute not only to Iran’s illegal pursuit of nuclear weapons, but to the sponsorship of terrorism in the region and to a brutal campaign of repression against the Iranian people.”
   UANI cited two incidents in which it said CMA CGM vessels have been involved in shipping dangerous weaponry to or from Iran in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions.
   It said the United Arab Emirates in July 2009 seized a shipment of weapons from North Korea destined for Iran.
   “This case is particularly troubling, because according to a diplomatic source, the shipment reportedly contained components that would be used for an Iranian test launch of a new, North Korean-supplied intermediate-range ballistic missile,” the group said. “The missile, reportedly the BM-25 (or Musudan), is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching targets in Western Europe.”
   In October 2010, it said Nigerian authorities seized 13 shipping containers carrying illegal Iranian weaponry at Lagos' Apapa Port that originated in Bandar Abbas, Iran. “The containers included 107mm artillery rockets (Katyushas), explosives and rifle ammunition. The arms were to be shipped next to The Gambia, with the final destination of the cargo possibly being the Gaza Strip,” the group said in its letter to Saade and Baragona.
   “Companies should not hide behind claims of being victims of false cargo declarations,” UANI said in its letter.
   UANI also said an article in the Tehran Times reported CMA CGM also calls the Iranian port of Bushehr and plans to increase business there 10-fold.
   Iran has a large population and economy that is well served by shipping companies. American Shipper affiliate ComPair Data lists 21 direct liner services calling Bandar Abbas that include 21 of the 25 largest container shipping companies in the world. The CIA Factbook said that with about 78 million residents, Iran is the world's 18th-most populous country and had gross domestic product of $863.5 billion in 2010, making it the 19th-largest economy.
   CMA CGM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.