US targets Iran-Russia oil network sent to Syria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States announced on Tuesday that it has taken steps to disrupt a Russian-Iranian network sending millions of barrels of oil to Syria and hundreds of millions of dollars to indirectly fund militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

The complicated arrangement described by the US Treasury in a statement implicated a Syrian citizen using his Russian-based company to ship Iranian oil to Syria with the help of a Russian public company.

Syria then helped to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to Hezbollah, which functions as a political party belonging to the Lebanese government and as a militia, as well as to Hamas, the Palestinian group that runs the band. from Gaza.

Since 2014, ships carrying Iranian oil have turned off the transponders to conceal deliveries to Syria, said the Treasury Department, adding that the State Department and the US Coast Guard had issued an opinion to the maritime community on the penalties incurred during the oil shipment to Syria. government.

The so-called arrangement shows that Russia has sought to undermine US policy towards Syria, where Washington and Moscow have been opponents of a civil war unleashed in 2011, as well as against the United States. Iran, that the United States wants to limit its nuclear and missile programs and support to proxies activists.

"Today, we are acting against a complex ploy used by Iran and Russia to strengthen the regime (of Syrian President Bashar al-) Assad and generate funds for Iran's malicious activities." ", said US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a statement announcing sanctions against them. were linked to the network.

"Officials of the Central Bank of Iran continue to exploit the international financial system," he added.

Richard Nephew, a sanctions expert at Columbia University, said, "This agreement highlights Russia's efforts to support Assad in his own interest, which serves to thwart the US's desire not to to have Assad in power ".

Syrian group Mohammad Amer Alchwiki and his Russian-based group, Global Vision Group, played a pivotal role in delivering Iranian oil to Syria and transferring funds to the "deadly prosecutors" of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Treasury Department said in a statement.

Syrian nationals Hajji Abd al-Nasir, Muhammad Qasim al-Bazzal and Lebanese, and Andrey Dogaev, a Russian national, as well as Iranian nationals Rasoul Sajjad and Hossein Yaghoubi Miab, said the statement.

Sajjad and Yaghoobi, officials of the Central Bank of Iran, have been working to facilitate transfers from Alchwiki, he added.

Other sanctions include the Russian public company Promsyrioimport, a subsidiary of the Russian Ministry of Energy, which, according to the US Treasury, would have facilitated the delivery of Iranian oil to Syria, as well as the Mir Business Bank and the company Iranian Tadbir Kish.

The Treasury's "designation" of individuals and entities separates them from the global financial system by blocking one of their assets under US jurisdiction and putting non-US institutions on guard.

The United States disagrees with Britain, France and Germany, as well as Russia and China, against US President Donald Trump's decision on May 8 to abandon the 2015 on Iran's nuclear, negotiated with other world powers under the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama.

The agreement removed many US and other economic sanctions from Iran in exchange for Tehran's commitment to reduce its nuclear program.

Trump reinstated US sanctions on Nov. 5 and threatened to take further action to end his "outlaw" policy.

Iran, in turn, called Trump's actions to the economic war and pledged to defy the sanctions. The European powers that continue to support the nuclear agreement said that they opposed the new application of sanctions.