July 9 (UPI) — The Trump administration announced Wednesday it has designated more than 20 entities as complicit in the facilitation of selling Iranian oil, which funds a paramilitary force considered a foreign terrorist organization by the United States.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, has designated 22 companies and individuals located in Hong Kong, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates as complicit in enabling the sale of the oil, which OFAC reports provides funding for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, or IRGC-QF.
By way of front companies outside Iran, OFAC accuses the IRGC-QF of transferring hundreds of millions of dollars through offshore accounts to avoid sanctions and to fund “terrorist activities.”
Refineries that purchase Iranian oil then transfer payments to these front companies, which also move money to accounts that belong to IRGC-QF. Iran then reportedly uses the cash to fund both its weapons programs and support terrorist partners and proxies elsewhere in the Middle East.
“The Iranian regime relies heavily on its shadow banking system to fund its destabilizing nuclear and ballistic missile weapons programs, rather than for the benefit of the Iranian people,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a press release. “[The] Treasury remains focused on disrupting this shadowy infrastructure that allows Iran to threaten the United States and our allies in the region.”
OFAC’s action in regard to this activity falls under Executive Order 13224, first issued in 2001 by then-President George W. Bush, which “provides a means by which to disrupt the financial support network for terrorists and terrorist organizations by authorizing the U.S. government to designate and block the assets of foreign individuals and entities that commit, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism.”
The IRGC-QF was designated a terrorist organization in 2007 for its supporting of terrorist organizations, as was the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that same year for its support of IRGC-QF.
Anyone who violates sanctions placed by the United States may face either criminal or civil penalties.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote in an X post Wednesday that “the Iranian regime relies heavily on its shadow banking system to fund its destabilizing nuclear and ballistic missile weapons programs, which threaten the United States and our allies in the region.”