‘Huge Concern’ Over UK Presence of Terror-Sanctioned Iran Companies: Experts

At least 14 businesses linked to Tehran and sanctioned by the United States have UK bases

General view of the scene where protesters clashed with police outside the Islamic Centre in London, on Sept. 25, 2022. David Parry/PA Media

At least 14 foreign sanctioned commercial and financial institutions linked to the Iran regime have bases in the UK, analysis by The Epoch Times has found.

Oil companies, insurance firms, and even consultancy services—all blacklisted by the United States over terror fears—currently operate out of a number of central London premises.

The presence of the Tehran-linked companies has been described as a “huge concern” by experts who say the British government is waning in its response to serious security fears raised over Iran’s UK outposts.

In February, MI5 revealed it had thwarted at least 15 Iran-backed kidnap and death plots against British-based individuals in the last year.

The attempted assassinations and abductions were made public hours after a London-based Persian broadcaster announced it had been forced to move its operations to the United States after safety concerns.

Acting on advice from the Metropolitan Police, Iran International TV “reluctantly” closed its Chiswick studios after police advice that it was no longer possible to protect the channel’s staff and the surrounding public.

The increasing threats from Iran led to mounting pressure on the British government to proscribe a military arm of the regime—the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

However, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat has so far failed to do so, despite numerous calls from party and political colleagues.

Trade Ban

Speaking to The Epoch Times, Daniel Roth, research director at United Against Nuclear Iran, said: “Given what we learned in January when the UK government was saying, we’re going to proscribe the IRGC properly under the Terrorism Act 2000—well it is now four months later, and there has been absolutely no movement on that.

“Anything run, operated, owned by the regime, outside of Iran, and especially in Western Europe is a huge concern.”

Since 2005, the United States has designated Iranian individuals, companies, and organisations in what it says is Iran’s involvement in nuclear proliferation, ballistic missile development, support for terrorist groups, and human rights abuses.

The economic sanctions means U.S. companies—and citizens—are limited to how much business they can conduct in Iran, or with Iranian-linked companies based there or elsewhere.

There are also strict bars on what business Iran can do in the United States, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

There are currently 14 UK companies that have been placed on OFAC’s Iran sanctions list.

The strict bars they face in the United States do not apply to Britain.

Those companies include Iran’s main shipping carrier, the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL).

The state-owned shipping group has an active office in England and at least two active UK registered companies.

Financial documents for one of IRISL’s companies show that six of its UK fleet of ships were financed by the Chinese communist regime.

Demonstrators at Trafalgar Square in London on Sunday Jan. 8, 2023. The protest against the Islamic Republic in Iran followed the death of Mahsa Amini. Aaron Chown/PA

Annulled Restrictions

The group has been accused of smuggling nuclear technologies and ballistic missile parts, as well as running weapons to other groups allied to the regime in Tehran.

In 2010, the United Nations and European Union followed the United States in placing sanctions on the shipping company for what they said were similar activities.

Consequently, the group’s EU-based funds and economic resources were frozen, including in the UK.

At that time, most of IRISL’s fleet was based on the Isle of Man, a UK island that has its own laws and Parliament.

The six-ship fleet was moved in 2011 from the Irish Sea island to Panama, and all of its ships were renamed, according to Iran Watch (pdf).

That same year IRISL UK dissolved, while two of the shipping firm’s companies have remained open in the UK.

That includes its overseas company of the same name, which has listed its British offices at an address in London.

Filings for the company have not been updated since 2013, despite being listed on Companies House as being active.

The same year, the shipping company successfully challenged the EU sanctions in the General Court of the European Union which annulled the restrictions against the company.

Minister of State for Security Tom Tugendhat speaks at a fringe meeting at the annual Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, England, on Oct. 2, 2022. Leon Neal/Getty Images

Chinese Funded

Company documents analysed by The Epoch Times show that the shipping line financed six of its last registered ships in Britain by a financial arm of the Chinese communist state.

Mortgage details listed under Companies House for six bulk carriers show that the Bank of China had bankrolled IRISL’s British fleet.

The mortgages were signed off by a London-based solicitor acting on behalf of the state-owned China bank.

It is unclear as to whether these ships are still in operation in the UK. Following international sanctions, the group renamed a number of its ships and moved them under subsidiary companies, according to the Center for Iranian Studies.

One of IRISL’s more active UK companies is Irinvestship Ltd, which has a registered office in Arcadia Street in London.

According to EU sanction documents published by the UK government in 2010, the British company is owned by IRISL and “provides financial, legal, and insurance services for the group as well as marketing, chartering, and crew management.”

Its latest accounts for 2022—filed last month—show the company has lost more than 50 percent of its assets within a year.

According to documents signed off by Irinvestship Ltd’s current director, its assets dipped from £476,000 in 2021 to almost £215,000 in 2022.

Again, little is publicly known about its UK business operation, but its parent owner’s state links to both Iran and China—given UK tensions with both—could concern security officials.

In February, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi described Iran and China as “friends in difficult situations,” in an op-ed for the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party newspaper, ahead of a visit to Beijing.

In this file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi (R) and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pose for a photo on the sidelines of a meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Sept. 16, 2022. Shen Hong/Xinhua via AP, File

‘Sponsored Terror’

NPC International Limited, located in the Victoria Street area of London, is another Iranian-linked British company.

It was first designated by OFAC in June 2019 for being “owned or controlled” by Iran’s largest and most profitable petrochemical holding group, Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (PGPIC).

The United States states that PGPIC provided financial support to Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, the engineering conglomerate of the IRGC.

PGPIC has awarded major engineering, procurement, and construction contracts to the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya, generating “hundreds of millions of dollars for an IRGC economic conglomerate that stretches across Iran’s major industries,” OFAC said.

Its income is alleged to have been used to “sponsor” terrorist organisations and terrorist attacks around the world, as well as “develop nuclear weapons of mass destruction and build new missiles to threaten to destroy other countries.”

NPC International Limited makes clear its close relationship with PGPIC in its most recently filed UK accounts.

It states that its “principal activities” are the “provision of management consultancy services, including gathering data and information in connection with the petrochemical industries for PGPIC.”

It also provides foreign investment for the Iranian company.

Documents also state that despite ongoing banking restrictions “the company managed to service all the payment obligations of NPC in the year amounting to 20.2 million Euros.”

The director’s report added: “Even with the difficulties facing Iranian organisations and acquiring new financial financing facilities, the company continued its endeavours in the year to arrange finance for PGPICS ongoing projects through foreign lines of credit.

“These involve many discussions between the company and various Iranian and foreign businesses banks and financial institutions.”

Another of Iran’s UK-based oil businesses is Petropars, a subsidiary of the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

It holds a central London office, along with £5 million in British assets, according to recently filed documents.

It also faces U.S. sanctions similar to those imposed on NPC International and the PGIPIC.

Protesters march in solidarity with protesters in Iran on the National Mall in Washington, on Oct. 22, 2022. Olivier Douliery /AFP via Getty Images

Mahsa Amini Killing

“There’s definitely room for the UK to do more on that just beyond the IRGC stuff,” United Against Nuclear Iran’s Roth told The Epoch Times.

“The interesting thing with the Iranian owned shipping stuff is that they’re actually using foreign tankers now, rather than their own IRISL, NIOC, and all the Iranian fleets.

“But apart from the banks and the shipping, they’ve also got this Islamic Centre of England, which seems to be a regime college, propagating their revolutionary exporting propaganda, essentially.

“Anything like that should be huge concern.”

Last month, several MPs called for the Islamic Centre of England to be shut down after a Times of London investigation showing that some of the sheikhs it promotes have called for the downfall of Western democracies and the “compassionate” killing of gay people.

Concerns were also raised about the centre’s apparent links to IRGC.

Roth added: “Compared to 10 years ago, nobody in Parliament was talking about IRGC.

“I don’t think anybody had even really heard of the IRGC.

“But at the current rate, IRGC will have been mentioned more times over 2023 than in the past 43 years combined.

“A lot of it has to do with after the Mahsa Amini killing in prison.”

Amini, 22, died on Sept. 16, 2022, in Tehran while in the custody of Iran’s morality police.

It not only sparked nationwide protests in Iran, but across the world, including London.

Roth said there seemed to be a lack of real understanding about the dangers posed by Iran by the general UK public.

Describing the regime as “the head of the snake” when it comes to all these terrorist organisations, Roth said that “at least” political circles in Britain were “becoming more aware.”

Candles and pictures of Mahsa Amini are placed at a memorial during a candlelight vigil for Mahsa Amini who died in custody of Iran's morality police, in Los Angeles Sept. 29, 2022. Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Images

Hezbollah

UK-based financial institutions that face some of the most serious U.S. sanctions include major Tehran regime-run banks.

Bank Melli, with offices in Kensington, was designated in 2018 by OFAC “for assisting in, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for” financial or other services to the IRGC.

A press release from the U.S. department said at the time: “As of 2018, the equivalent of billions of dollars in funds have flowed through IRGC-QF controlled accounts at Bank Melli.

“The IRGC-QF has used Bank Melli to dispense funds to Iraqi Shia militant groups, and Bank Melli’s presence in Iraq was part of this scheme.”

It added that since the mid-2000s, Bank Melli “increasingly provided services to Iranian military-related entities as they became further involved in all aspects of the Iranian economy.”

“Bank Melli has enabled the IRGC and its affiliates to move funds inside and outside of Iran.”

One of Iran’s largest financial arms, Bank Saderat, operates in the heart of London’s financial district, and was cut off by the U.S. Treasury in 2006.

It was accused of transferring “hundreds of millions of dollars” to the the Lebanese Shia terrorist group Hezbollah and “other terrorist organizations each year.”

“We will no longer allow a bank like Saderat to do business in the American financial system, even indirectly,” said Stuart Levey, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the time.

The Epoch Times has contacted the UK’s Foreign Office for comment on the concerns surrounding the Iranian companies and their operations in Britain.

In January, the UK government said it had imposed 50 new sanctions in response to human rights violations by the Iranian regime.

The sanctions included an asset freeze and UK travel ban on individuals to “send a wider signal on the UK’s commitment to backing condemnation with action,” according to the Foreign Office.

The total trade in goods and services—exports plus imports—between the UK and Iran was £670 million.

The figures relate to the four quarters to the end of 2022—an increase of 114.1 percent, or £357 million, from the four quarters to the end of 2021.