The United States slapped on Tuesday sanctions against figures linked to an Iranian-Russian network that was providing millions of barrels of oil to the Syrian regime and funding the Hamas and Hezbollah groups.
The complicated arrangement, described by the US Treasury, involved a Syrian citizen using his Russia-based company to ship Iranian oil to Syria with the aid of a Russian state-owned company.
Syria then helped transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, as well as to the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.
Since 2014, vessels carrying Iranian oil have switched off transponders to conceal deliveries to Syria, the Treasury Department said, adding it, the State Department and the US Coast Guard had issued an advisory to the maritime community about the sanctions risks of shipping oil to Syria’s regime.
The sanctions target six individuals and three entities.
"Today we are acting against a complex scheme Iran and Russia have used to bolster the (Bashar al-) Assad regime and generate funds for Iranian malign activity," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
"Central Bank of Iran officials continue to exploit the international financial system," he added.
Richard Nephew, a sanctions expert at Columbia University, said: “The arrangement exposes Russia’s efforts to support Assad for their own interests, which has the function of thwarting the US desire to no longer have Assad in power.”
Those targeted include Syrian Mohammad Amer Alchwiki and his Russia-based company Global Vision Group, which were central to the delivery of Iranian oil to Syria and the transfer of funds to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force’s “lethal proxies”, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
Other targets include: Syrian national Hajji Abd Al-Nasir, Lebanon national Muhammad Qasim Al-Bazzal and Russian national Andrey Dogaev as well as Iranian nationals Rasoul Sajjad and Hossein Yaghoubi Miab, the statement said.
The US Treasury's designation of the individuals and entities effectively cuts them off from the global financial system by blocking any of their assets under US jurisdiction and warning non-US institutions against dealing with them.
Russia will continue supplying oil to Syria in line with its agreement with Damascus despite pressure from the United States, RIA news agency quoted Oleg Morozov, a member of the Russian Federation Council, as saying late on Tuesday.
According to Morozov, Russia acts and will act “absolutely legally”.
“We have an agreement with Syria and therefore it’s up to us to decide what we supply and to whom. This will be our answer, (it is) much more effective than counter sanctions,” he added.
