The United States government has recently announced that it might want to have sanctions imposed against Iran if a resolution to Iran’s nuclear aspirations cannot be found. The sanctions included the ban on insurance or reinsurance with Iran in an effort to make it more difficult for Iran to engage in international commerce.

I will not step into the minefield of international diplomacy. It has been noted that an Iranian ship that was stopped in Cyprus with arms for a Palestinian group had changed its name a number of times in an effort to hide its true identity. If sanctions are imposed, the same type of obfuscation will undoubtedly be tried. While it will be fairly easy for reinsurance companies to identify companies that are directly linked to Iran, it might not always be that easy to follow the corporate trail through many different counties.

Any penalties should only imposed by United States if the reinsurance company failed to make a good faith effort in determining the ownership of the property for which a claim was paid.