New EU sanctions ban Irisl activity inside Malta Freeport

Earlier today, the US Department of the Treasury announced the designation of 37 front companies based in Germany, Malta, and Cyprus and five Iranian individuals controlled or owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (Irisl) and its affiliates.

MaltaToday has confirmed that an EU Council Regulation, published yesterday in the Official Journal and now part of Maltese law, will freeze the funds and economic resources of Irisl’s interests in Malta, and prohibits the loading and unloading of cargo on vessels owned or chartered by Irisl at the Malta Freeport.

Coupled with the new EU sanctions, the United States blacklisted four shipping companies – Shere, Tongham, Uppercourt, and Vobster Ltd – all located at the same address in Malta, and owned by Irisl or one of its subsidiaries. Each of these firms is the registered owner of Iranian vessels blacklisted by US sanctions.

Mansour Eslami, the director of Irisl (Malta) Limited, is one of five company directors designated by the US sanctions.

The European Council’s decision implements a fourth round of sanctions against Iran, covering trade, financial services, energy and transport, and extend the list of entities and individuals subject to a freeze of assets and economic resources.

The Malta-based firms targeted by the sanctions are Irisl (Malta) Ltd, located at the offices of Royal-Med Shipping on Tower Road, Sliema; ISI Maritime, located in St Lucia Street, Valletta; Marble Shipping (Sliema), also owned by Irisl; and Bushehr Shipping (Sliema). ISI Maritime has 10 subsidiary companies – all Irisl-owned – registered in Valletta.

Royal-Med Shippng, a Maltese-owned firm, is the central node of the Irisl network, where it acts as the agent for a private, Iranian company – the Hafiz Darya Shipping Lines (HDS). HDS was created in 2009 shortly after the US and UK hit Irisl with trading bans over its alleged role in supplying Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, to take over IRISL’s container business as part of a government privatisation move.

When Irisl’s ships were blacklisted by the US and the UK, the vessels were transferred to these shell companies and their ship names changed from their Iranian appellations into innocuous English-sounding names.

So for example, the M/V Iran Kerman has now changed to Silver Craft, and is owned by Kerman Shipping, registered at 143/1, Tower Road, Sliema. Whereas before the new sanctions, running a compliance check on a transaction involving one of these ships would have raised several red flags, the new ship names allowed the same transactions to appear clean.

The new EU sanctions include restrictions on trade in key equipment and technology for, and restrictions on transfers of funds to and from Iran, the Iranian banking sector, restrictions on Iran's access to the insurance and bonds markets of the EU and restrictions on providing certain services to Iranian ships and cargo aircraft. Additional categories of persons are also to be made subject to the freezing of funds and economic resources.

The updated Council Regulation was published on 27 October, and automatically entered as part of Maltese law