NITC in Legal Talks with Britain to Remove Sanctions

(FNA)- A legal team from the National Iranian Tanker Company has been sent to Britain to study ways to remove the new sanctions against the NITC, sources revealed on Saturday."Recently, an expert team from the NITC went to Britain to negotiate on the new sanctions," an informed source told FNA today.

"The negotiations are mostly focused on legal issues in a bid to strike off the name of the NITC from the sanctions list through legal channels and before the implementation of the embargos," the source added.

Stressing that the western states don’t have any compelling reason for sanctioning the NITC, the source said, "Imposition of such embargos is completely political and against the political consultations between Iran and the western countries (the underway talks after the Geneva deal inked between Tehran and the world powers in November 2013)."

During a meeting in Brussels on 12 February, members of the European Union decided to sanction again the NITC which is transporting oil around the globe.

Britain also followed the European Union and put the NITC back on the list of sanctioned Iranian entities. 

This is while the General Court of the European Union annulled the sanctions against Iranian businessman and five firms, namely, the NITC, Sorinet Commercial Trust (SCT), Sharif University of Technology, Moallem Insurance Company (MIC) and Sina Bank in October.

The rulings in respect to businessman Babak Zanjani's Sorinet Commercial Trust, Sharif University of Technology, and the NITC were passed on July 3, 2014.

The verdict regarding Moallem Insurance Company was handed down on July 10, 2014, while the decision on Sina Bank was issued on June 4, 2014.

Since the judgments were not appealed within the designated two months, they came into effect.

After the EU announcement, Britain also ended asset freeze on five Iranian entities and a tradesman after the EU General Court issued rulings on the annulment of sanctions against Iran.

In mid-August, Iran called on the European countries to comply with the rulings of the EU courts on the annulment of the sanctions against Tehran.

"The EU's executive and administrative bodies should respect the European court rulings and undertake to comply and exercise the verdicts," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham told reporters at the time.

In July, the General Court of the European Union (7th chamber, extended composition) annulled the listing of the National Iranian Tanker Company on the European Union's targeted sanctions relating to Iran.

That was one in a series of annulments by the European court of the designations of Iranian individuals and companies from the EU sanctions list. Yet, the EU still shrugs off putting the rulings into effect.