Financial Restrictions (Iran) Order 2009

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for explaining the background to the order. We agree with the Government that sanctions of this kind are worth while in attempting to rein in Iran’s nuclear proliferation activities. Whether they have an impact on Iran’s nuclear ambitions more generally is rather moot, but it is clear that making it more difficult for Iran to carry them out must be in the national interest. I have only two questions. One is about any other operations that the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines might be undertaking in the UK that are not covered by the order, as the order covers relations with the financial services body. Shipping lines are likely to be working with other bodies that are not covered within the remit of financial restrictions, such as other shipping lines and customs bodies. Is there anything to stop the IRISL carrying on relations with other, non-financial bodies in the UK? The second question has to do with international action against the two organisations. The Minister spoke about efforts to ensure that overseas territories and Crown dependencies were taking similar action, and he mentioned some of them, but is he aware of any action being taken within the rest of the EU? The Explanatory Memorandum mentions other Iranian banks—for instance, Bank Saderat, Bank Sepah and Bank Melli—which are clearly covered by an EU prohibition. Nothing in the documentation explains whether that applies here, or whether, for some reason, this is a unilateral move by the EU. It is not clear to me without having read EU regulation 1110/2008—for which I apologise to the Committee—where this action fits in relation to it. Is there any reason to believe that the organisations are actively engaged in trade elsewhere in Europe and that equivalent action is being taken to stop such trade continuing? With those two minor caveats, however, we support the order and look forward to the Minister’s explanation.