Washington imposes sanctions on suppliers of Iran’s nuclear program

Shaimaa Hafezy

The US Treasury Department on Wednesday, August 28 put two Iranian business groups on its sanctions blacklist, saying both were suppliers of Iran’s nuclear program and were facilitating Tehran’s missile activities.

The Treasury Department, which works with the FBI, said in a statement on its website that the “Dehghan network” of Hamed Dehghan and Hadi Dehghan had bought and distributed “military-grade electronic components” to an Iranian engineering company working with the Iranian army and Revolutionary Guards.

The Treasury said the two businessmen were working through their company with a company in Hong Kong, China.

The second group on the sanctions list, dubbed the “Shariat network,” controlled by Seyed Hossein Shariat, was blacklisted for supplying Iranian entities with aluminum alloy products.

The sanctions freeze any property owned by the names in the United States, and aim to keep those blacklisted companies out of global commercial and financial networks by banning US individuals and companies, including international companies with US weapons, from doing business with them.

The Treasury has threatened to impose sanctions on any foreign financial institution that intentionally facilitates the treatment or provision of substantial financial services to any of the designated individuals.

The United States aims to impose sanctions on Iranian figures and entities working in support of the mullah regime, at a time of heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington due to differences over the Iranian nuclear program and the US withdrawal from the agreement.

A few months ago, US President Donald Trump announced a new package of sanctions against Iran aimed at senior officials, led by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which he described as a response to the downing of the US drone and “other things.” He added that Khamenei was ultimately responsible for what he called “hostile behavior by the regime.”

The United States says Khamenei has a huge fortune to finance the Revolutionary Guards. In 2018, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Khamenei’s personal wealth was estimated at $95 billion.

On the other hand, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Americans “despise diplomacy” and accused Washington of being “hungry for war.”

US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin said the expanded sanctions were aimed at “blocking Iran’s access to financial instruments, targeting the Supreme Leader’s office and holding billions of assets.”

With regard to international financial transactions, the United States is aiming to block Iranian oil exports (zeroing), and as a result, its companies are punished.

In June, the United States imposed sanctions on Iran’s largest petrochemical group and dozens of its subsidiaries for “links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards,” as part of the drying up of sources of funding for Iran’s military power.

The sanctions targeted the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company for “providing financial support to the economic arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard,” Iran’s elite military unit that oversees the ballistic missile and nuclear program.

The US Treasury said in a press statement at the time that it also imposed sanctions on the group’s holding network of 39 subsidiaries of petrochemicals and foreign sales agents.