TEHRAN: Sanctions on Iranian shipping lines have been completely removed and now there is no problem for Iranian tankers to travel to ports around the world, said National Iranian Tanker Company’s CEO Ali Akbar Safaee. He added that Iranian shipping lines have acquired necessary international ranking certificates and their insurance problems, which were imposed under the sanctions, are also completely lifted, the IRNA news agency reported May 13.
The official explained that in the wake of the removal of the sanctions foreign ships are also now able to dock at the Iranian ports. He further pointed out that the Iranian shipping lines are in talks with international insurance companies to use their services.
Iran currently uses a fleet of 70 tankers to ship oil and gas. Before the sanctions, the ships used mostly to frequent Turkey, China, Japan, India and South Korea as the major customers of the Iranian energy carriers. After six years of inactivity under the strict sanctions, the first Iranian commercial ship docked at a European port in mid-April. The docking marked the reopening of the European Container Line between Iran and Europe, which was suspended in 2010 due to the sanctions imposed by the US and its allies.
