Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Malta De-lists Iran Tanker

By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:

Malta delisted a merchant ship for violating international sanctions. That means that they removed the ship from their registry and are no longer allowing the ship to sail under the flag of Malta.

This is a huge success. The flag the ship was using is referred to as a "Flag of Convenience." Malta and Liberia are the largest of the countries that shield companies and other countries by allowing them use of their flag.
Malta delisted a freighter owned by MT Tour which is owned by ISIM Tour Ltd. MT Tour and ISIM Tour Ltd. are Iranian companies that were using the flag of Malta in order to break the sanctions.

The ship was picking up crude oil in Syria and shipping it to China. Syria could not find any other way to ship the 120,000 tons of crude worth $84 million. So Iran, at great risk, sent a cargo tanker ship to pick the freight up at the port of Tartus.

After seeing the evidence, Malta pulled the flag. Now everyone knows that the ship is from Iran - otherwise, with the flag of Malta flying on it, no one would have a clue where the ship was from and no one would have access to the paperwork to even investigate.

This is a small chink in the Syrian Iranian link. But If Malta continues to delist ships it may have a huge impact on the national products of both Iran and Syria.

Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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