UANI Calls on French Shipping Giant CMA CGM to End Its Business in Iran
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 10, 2011
Contact: [email protected]
Phone: (212) 554-3296
UANI
Calls on French Shipping Giant CMA CGM
to End Its Business in Iran
New
York, NY -
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)
on Wednesday called on the
CMA
CGM Group (“CMA
CGM”) to follow the lead of other
responsible corporations and cease all business activities in or with
Iran.
CMA CGM, a privately owned French company and the third largest
shipping
container company worldwide, is listed on UANI’s Iran Business
Registry
(IBR).
While the world is increasingly taking steps to isolate
Iran for its
pursuit of an illegal nuclear weapons program, CMA CGM is instead
increasing
its business in Iran, stating that it would increase activities in the
port of
Bushehr, where Iran’s light water nuclear reactor is located, “10
times more than
present.”
Since
2009,
CMA CGM vessels have also been involved in two known incidents of
shipping dangerous
weaponry to or from Iran in violation of UN Security Council
Resolutions. Most
recently, in October 2010, Nigerian authorities seized 13 shipping
containers
carrying illegal Iranian weaponry at Lagos’ Apapa Port.
In the
second case, in July 2009 the UAE 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 missile, reportedly the
BM-25 (or Musudan), is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead
and reaching
targets in Western Europe. CMA
CGM’s
business in Iran is clearly helping to prop up the Iranian regime’s
dictatorship.
In a letter to Jacques R.
Saadé, the Group Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group, and Frank J. Baragona,
President of CMA
CGM (America) LLC, UANI President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace wrote:
CMA
CGM’s office in the United States
is clearly subject to the jurisdiction of U.S. law enforcement
authorities and
the subpoena power of the U.S. Congress.
UANI calls on the United States Attorney for the Eastern
District of
Virginia to investigate CMA CGM and, particularly, its role in Iran
business
and the startling reports that CMA CGM was responsible for shipping
ballistic
missile parts from North Korea to Iran including BM-25 missile
components. It is
simply untenable for a company to be
located within ten miles from the U.S Department of Justice in Norfolk,
VA and
to be able to ship ballistic missile parts by and between North Korea
and Iran
without fear of criminal investigation and potential sanction.
CMA CGM’s office in the U.S. should be obligated to provide:
1.
Detailed
information of all cargo shipments by and
between Iran and North Korea;
2.
Detailed manifest
information on the shipments seized
by the Nigerian and UAE authorities described above;
3.
Any and all
information related to arms, munitions
and/or missile technology shipped by CMA CGM to or from an Iranian port
over
the last seven (7) years;
4.
Any and all
agreements with IRGC controlled and/or
affiliated entities, and;
5.
All documents
regarding the nature and extent of CMA
CGM’s business in Iran.
Click here
to send a message to CMA CGM.
Click here
to read the letter to CMA CGM.
Click here
to learn more about the Iran Disclosure
Project.
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