Tehran, July 22 (MRUD NEWS)—Iran Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) reacted to the action of the US and the UK to rescind Iran's bid to host the event on the World Maritime Day in October 2023 through an official statement in which it announced that these hostile actions are the result of desperation of some tyrannical governments but it will not disrupt Iran's will to move forward, to develop its maritime economy, and to participate actively in the IMO. This statement states:

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) in its 114th session of the IMO Council meeting in 2015, granted Iran the hosting of the parallel event on the World Maritime Day in October 2023, and since then, it has been approved in various occasions, including in the last year's meeting of the Council.

Given this and while there are only three months left for this event to be held in October, Iran's hosting was canceled during the 129th session of the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Council on Thursday, July 20, 2023, with the desperate efforts of the American and British governments to please few other dependent governments.

The basis of the opposition of these two countries were the false accusation of disturbing the stability and security of the sea by Iran; however, Iran, as an undisputed regional power in the region, has always been source of stability and protected the maritime safety and security and even the marine environment as it was encouraged by IMO in 2011. It is the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom, who on several occasions, both in territorial waters in the region and in international waters, have interfered with Iranian ships and cargoes with threats, intimidation and even malicious operations in violation of international law, disrupting peaceful trade and threatening maritime safety and security. 

We believe that such an illegal, nontechnical and immoral actions led by two egotistical governments, for an event only for celebrating seafarers and the maritime industry, had been due to their scandalous failures in exerting economic pressures and sanctions on Iran shipping industry and export of petroleum products, which on the one hand show their malice, impotence and incapacity in front of a great and noble nation of Iran, and on the other hand show abuse of technical international organizations with political purposes. 

However, the result of voting showed that the American and British governments were unable to reach a consensus among the members of the Council, until after the voting, the hosting was canceled with a fragile result of 22 votes in favor and 17 votes against or abstentions (out of a total of 39 member states of the Council present at the meeting).

For sure such harmful actions, which are out of desperation of a few governments, will not disrupt determination of Iran, as one of the important and effective governments in the region, and the maritime and port community of the country, to move forward and to develop the maritime economy and to participate actively in the legislative process of IMO according to the policies of the Supreme Leader and the guidelines of the Government.

In the end, we would like to thank our honorable colleagues at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, especially the Embassy of Iran in London for their support, planning, measures and coordination during the past six months.