Britain bans trade with two Iranian companies

Britain has stepped up the pressure on Iran over its nuclear weapons programme by banning UK companies from trading with Bank Mellat, a key Iranian bank, and its state-owned shipping fleet.

Sarah McCarthy-Fry, the Treasury Minister, said that the measure was taken because Bank Mellat had been “involved in transactions related to financing Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme”.

Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, the shipping company which is Iran's national maritime carrier, had “transported goods for both Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programmes”, the minister said in a statement.

Ms McCarthy-Fry said that under the Government's ban “financial and credit institutions will no longer be able to enter into new transactions or business relationships with these entities, nor to continue with existing transactions or business relationships unless they are licensed by HM Treasury”.

Bank Mellat is one of Iran’s largest banks, nationalised in 1980 after the revolution in 1979, by the forced merger of 10 private banks. Its branch in London trades as Persia International Bank.

The bank and its parent company, Mellat, were recently named by the US Treasury Department in its watchlist of Iranian banks that may be trading in violation of a UN Security Council Resolution regarding money laundering.

The Treasury Department also believes that the bank may be involved in financing nuclear proliferation. Mellat is understood to be Iran's second-largest bank with some $40 billion (£25.2 billion) of assets.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, (IRISL) is effectively the country's fleet of ocean-going freighters, running 115 vessels, including container ships and cargo ships. It is also state-owned but founded in pre-revolution days in 1969 as Aria Shipping. Its name was changed after the revolution.

Last month the US Treasury Department warned businesses against trading with IRISL, saying that it was engaged in supplying logistical services to Iran's Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics, facilitating the transport of cargo for its nuclear and missile programme.

Stuart Levey, the Under-Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said at the time: "It also falsifies documents and uses deceptive schemes to shroud its involvement in illicit commerce. IRISL's actions are part of a broader pattern of deception and fabrication that Iran uses to advance its nuclear and missile programs."

The move comes as six-party negotiations between Iran, western nations and Russia on Iran's controversial nuclear programme begin next week in Vienna. Western powers suspect that Iran’s nuclear programme is aimed at making atomic weapons, a charge denied by Tehran.

Source: Times Online