Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz is expected to issue an order in the next few days which will make it clear that Iran is an enemy state and therefore, it is prohibited for Israelis to have any economic relationship with Iran.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry said that the Treasury is determined to implement the economic sanctions on Iran decided upon by the international community as reflected in the decisions of the UN Security Council.
Steinitz has also given to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee a draft of regulations which prohibit investment in corporations that maintain a business relationship with Iran. The draft regulations are in accordance with a recent bill submitted by MK Carmel Hacohen Shama (Likud) which prohibits investment in corporations that maintain a business relationship with Iran and are part of the measures taken by Israel in its fight against Iran’s nuclear program.
The regulations in the draft regularize the consolidation of the list of corporations with a substantial business relationship with Iran. Financial institutions, banks and mutual funds will be barred from investing in these corporations. The draft regulation also establishes the criteria for the definition of a substantial business relationship with Iran. Corporations which meet these criteria will be announced as corporations that maintain a substantive business relationship with Iran and will thus enter the list of companies in which financial corporations can not invest.
Steinitz said in a statement Thursday, “This is a significant step in Israel’s tightening of its economic sanctions on Iran as part of its commitment to the international efforts to thwart Iran’s ability to develop non-conventional weapons, thus threatening the existence of Israel and all the Western countries.”
Steinitz’s moves come following a recent political and media storm over the Ofer Brothers Group shipping company, Tanker Pacific, which was accused last month of having had its ships docked in Iran.
The story came to light after the United States slapped sanctions on the Ofer Brothers Group over suspicions that it had violated sanctions against trade with Iran.