The Treasury Department on Tuesday appoints new sanctions against a network of companies and individuals from China, Russia and Turkey for their involvement in facilitating shipments and financial transactions in support of.
Iran has reportedly furnished unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs or drones to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine and to proxy groups in Yemen, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. It has also provided the tools needed for Russia and those groups to manufacture drones.
s continued, deliberate proliferation of its UAVs enables Russia, its proxies in the Middle East, and other destabilizing actors to undermine global stability, said Brian E. Nelson, the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
The new round of sanctions hit seven individuals and four companies that support the production, procurement and maintenance of UAVs and military aircraft by the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company. The list includes three individuals based in Iran, two individuals and one company based in China, three Russian companies and two individuals in Turkey.
Until 2008, HESA has been subjected to several aliases in an effort to circumvent sanctions. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control is upgrading its sanctions lists to reflect the latest alias Shahin, which it has used since 2022.
The company makes Iran's Ababil and Shahed drones, the latter of which have been routinely used by Russia in the drone strikes '' Kamikaze ''. Early Tuesday, Russia launched a drone attack on Lviv, a city in Western Ukraine, containing 30 Shahed drones, the majority of which were intercepted by Ukraine's air defenses.
A group of five were hit with similar penalties earlier this year for providing aerospace components to support Iran's drone industry, which the latest sanctions package builds off of.
Under the latest round of sanctions, all property and interests in property of individuals and organizations covered are blocked, in addition to those involving entities in which sanctioned individuals have a direct or indirect ownership interest of more than 50%. The transaction by U.S. persons or those within the U.S. involving property or interests of blocked or sanctioned persons is prohibited.
Certain individuals who engage in transactions with sanctioned individuals may be subject to sanctions as foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate transactions or provide financial services for a sanctioned individual or group may also be subject to sanctions.