April 01, 2024 | Claire Jungman and Daniel Roth
Just as travelers may not generally enter other countries without a valid passport, ships may not dock at foreign ports without a recognized flag. So it was a significant step this month when the U.S. State Department—for the first time—publicly called on Panama, until last year the largest flag-provider in the world, to strip its flag from vessels carrying Iranian oil. The Panama Maritime Administration (AMP) has repeatedly come under fire for allegedly facilitating Iran’s evasion of sanctions through its “flags of convenience” system. This arrangement allows ship owners to register vessels in Panama, granting anonymity and minimal oversight in exchange for a fee.
As Deputy Special Envoy to Iran, Abram Paley, stated, “Our aim is to prevent ships from supporting groups designated as Iranian terrorist organizations through illegal oil sales." Paley’s statements in Panama underscore the abuse of the country’s flag registry by Iran and its affiliates to bypass sanctions. As UANI has been highlighting for more than three years—including in a January 2023 Washington Post op-ed by UANI advisory board member Jeb Bush—the AMP is reliably the worst offender for this particular practice. Indeed, the AMP continues to flag almost half of all the tankers in our “Ghost Armada.”
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