AFP: The United Arab Emirates has closed down 40 international and local firms as part of a crackdown on companies that violate UN sanctions on Iran, a newspaper reported on Monday.
DUBAI (AFP) — The United Arab Emirates has closed down 40 international and local firms as part of a crackdown on companies that violate UN sanctions on Iran, a newspaper reported on Monday.
These companies have been dealing in “dual-use and dangerous materials banned under UN resolutions and the nuclear non-proliferation treaty,” the Gulf News reported quoting an unnamed UAE official.
“Operations of any company in the UAE proved to have connections with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, other entities or individuals subject to the UN asset freeze will immediately be shut down,” the official said.
“The UAE is committed to meet its obligations toward the global effort for non-proliferation,” of nuclear weapons, the official added.
On June 9, the UN Security Council slapped a fourth round of sanctions on Iran over its controversial nuclear drive, this time tightening the noose on military and financial transactions.
The resolution bans the sale to Iran of eight new types of heavy weapons and applies new restrictions on Iranian investments abroad.
For years, Iran maintained active trade relations with Dubai, one of seven emirates making up the UAE, with the trade volume estimated at around 10 billion dollars a year, mostly of Iranian imports.
A Western diplomat said last week that Dubai authorities succumbed to US pressure on the federal government in Abu Dhabi to prohibit any goods bound for Iran that could have dual civilian and military use.
About 400,000 Iranians are based in UAE.
The fresh UN and US sanctions were imposed after Tehran pressed on with uranium enrichment for a programme that Iran insists is peaceful but the West and others suspect is aimed at making a bomb.
