Ministers approve Iran trade ban

The Ministerial Committee on Legislative Affairs approved Sunday a bill proposed by Knesset Member Carmel Shama (Likud) forbidding public and private Israeli institutions, as well as private individuals, from maintaining contact with companies with business ties to Iran.

According to the bill, anyone who breaks this law will be sentenced to one year in prison and will be required to pay a NIS 5 million ($1.48 million) fine or three times the amount of his expected profit.

The bill only applies to business transactions worth at least $20 million, meaning that small-scale commercial deals will not be considered a felony.

MK Shama explained the bill was submitted a few months ago and did not result from the recent Ofer Brothers affair linking the Israeli company to Iran. Shama stressed that Israel must comply with economic efforts by the international community to stop the Iranian nuclear program.

The bill is now expected to be presented before the Knesset for a priliminary vote.

A US state department press release issued several weeks ago stated that the Ofer Group, along with two other shipping companies from Monaco and Singapore were involved in a deal supplying shipping services worth $9 million to Iranian shipping company IRISL in September 2010.

Last week, Clacalist revealed that between 2004 and 2010 at least four oil tankers owned by the Ofer Group's Tanker Pacific Company docked in Iranian ports.

A Clacalist report also revealed that seven of Tanker Pacific's ships docked in Iranian ports at least eight times at a time when Israel was lobbying fiercely for the US to impose sanctions on trade with Iran.

Source: Ynetnews