Global shippers are starting their return to Iranian ports, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Last week, Mediterranean Shipping Co. SA, the Swiss shipping giant, called at Bandar Abbas – the first time it had done so since 2012. CMA CGM SA, the French shipping company, has reportedly already begun shipping to Iran. The developments signal Iran’s re-emergence into the service lines of some of the world’s largest shipping lines, as all parties prepare for the pending relaxation of U.S. sanctions targeting Iran.

According to the WSJ, Mediterranean Shipping Co. SA “discharged 300 containers filled with food and agricultural commodities at the [Bandar Abbas] port” in Iran. Shipment of such goods has long been authorized under the existing general license for the export or re-export of agricultural commodities, medicines, and medical supplies at 31 C.F.R. § 560.530. However, a number of factors have inhibited global shippers from utilizing this general license, including difficulties receiving payment from Iran due to continued sanctions on Iranian banks, the inability to procure insurance for the shipment of such goods to Iran, and uncertainties regarding the legality of shipping goods into Bandar Abbas port so long as Tidewater – which OFAC claimed to be in operation of the Shahid Rajaee Container Terminal – remained under U.S. designation pursuant to Executive Order 13382. (31 C.F.R. § 560.530(d)(5) prohibits “any transaction or dealing with a person…who is designated or otherwise subject to sanctions under the…proliferation of [WMD]…program[] administered by OFAC [i.e., persons designated under EO 13382]…”)

As implementation of the recent nuclear deal continues apace and sanctions relief approaches on the near horizon (“days away,” according to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry), global shippers have grown more confident in their ability to navigate existing U.S. sanctions laws and to absorb the decreasing reputational risks attached to their dealings with Iran. As a result, they are starting to undertake transactions that have long been authorized under U.S. law.

This development provides additional evidence to my prediction that we will see foreign firms first start to take advantage of currently authorized transactions (or non-prohibited transactions) with Iran. Already, we’re seeing French and other European hotel giants building luxury hotels in Tehran and other major Iranian cities, as Iran seeks to revamp its tourism industry and invite the world in. Now, we’re starting to see European shipping companies return to service to Iran, beginning – as with Mediterranean Shipping Co. SA – with the shipment of humanitarian goods into the country. It’s a promising development for Iran that some of the risk that had attached to even authorized activities is quickly dissipating and foreign companies are accelerating efforts to return to business as normal with the country.