The U.S. Treasury is nothing more than a “jail warden”, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif lamented Thursday, a day after Washington imposed fresh sanctions designed to end the illicit smuggling of oil by Iran shipping interests.
As Breitbart News reported, the U.S. on Wednesday blacklisted an “oil for terror” network of firms, ships and individuals allegedly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for supplying Syria with oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars in return for cash to finance ongoing terror activities.
“OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control of U.S. Treasury) is nothing more than a JAIL WARDEN: Ask for reprieve (waiver), get thrown in solitary for the audacity. Ask again and you might end up in the gallows,” Zarif wrote on his Twitter account.
#OFAC is nothing more than a JAIL WARDEN:
Ask for reprieve (waiver), get thrown in solitary for the audacity. Ask again and you might end up in the gallows
The only way to mitigate US #EconomicTerrorism (sanctions) is to decide to finally free yourself from the hangman’s noose.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) September 5, 2019
President Donald Trump pulled the United States from the 2015 Obama-negotiated JCPOA nuclear deal between Iran and Six powers last year and reimposed sanctions on Tehran. Since then Washington has intensified its “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at eliminating Iran’s illicit oil exports, its main source of foreign income.
Wednesday’s State Department move takes that a step further.
A reward of $15 million has also been offered to anyone with information that disrupts the network’s operation that, “is directed by and financially supports the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah,” according to a Treasury Department statement.
“Today’s announcement is historic,” Special Representative for Iran and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State Brian Hook said during a press briefing Wednesday. “It’s the first time that the United States has offered a reward for information that disrupts a government entity’s financial operations.”
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