U.S. urges insurers to implement Iran sanctions

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Washington and its allies are urging international insurance companies to make sure that they are implementing U.N. sanctions against Iran, a senior U.S. Treasury Department official said on Wednesday.

Daniel Glaser, the Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, said it was important for insurers to be "as vigilant as possible, both in the area of maritime insurance and in the area of reinsurance."

The United States has been interpreting three U.N. Security Council sanctions resolutions as broadly as possible and has long been pushing global financial institutions to sever ties with Iran due to suspicions it has a covert nuclear weapons program, diplomats and government officials have said.

In recent months, diplomats in New York say, Washington and its European allies have turned their attention on the insurance industry so that the world's top insurers would refrain from providing coverage to Iranian companies or firms doing business with Iran.

Glaser left no doubt that this was the case.

"The United States and our partners have begun a dialogue with the international insurance community to make sure that they're taking the steps they need to take," he said at U.N. headquarters before a meeting of the Iran sanctions committee.

"Insurance is a financial service and the U.N. Security Council resolutions relate to financial services," Glaser said. "So I think it's important for the insurance sector to take into account all of these safeguards that the international financial community is putting in place."

Reinsurance is a service provided to insurance companies to protect them against major risks.

Maritime insurance cover loss of cargo or damage to ships transporting shipments on the sea. This is a key service for a country like Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer.

Washington, Britain and France are calling for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran, which denies Western allegations that it wants atom bombs and refuses to suspend its uranium enrichment program. Iran says its nuclear ambitions are limited to peacefully generating electricity.

One senior western council diplomat said it was unclear if they would include language on insurance in a fourth sanctions resolution, which will be the topic of a meeting in Washington next week of senior foreign ministry officials from Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the United States.

"The resolutions already passed provide scope for insurers to help tighten the stranglehold on Iran to persuade it it's not worth it to continue with their nuclear program," the diplomat said. "But it might be included (in a new text)."

The world's top reinsurers include Germany's Munich Re and Hannover Re, Switzerland's Swiss Re and billionaire investor Warren Buffet's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc.