The US on Tuesday announced sanctions against three Russian companies, including a subsidiary of the Russian Ministry of Energy, an Iranian company and five individuals accused of illicitly shipping millions of barrels of oil from Iran to Syria.
The sanctions are aimed at cutting off oil sales to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's regime and illegal funding of terrorist groups, senior US administration officials said.
"The United States is committed to imposing a financial toll on Iran, Russia and others for their efforts to solidify Assad's authoritarian rule, as well as disrupt the Iranian regime's funding of terrorist organizations," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
According to Treasury, Mohammad Amer Alchiwiki, a Syrian national, facilitated delivery of Iranian crude to Syria through his Russian-based company, Global Vision Group. Alchiwiki's company coordinated with the National Iranian Oil Company and Promsyrioimport, the Russian ministry subsidiary, to ship Iranian oil to Syria.
"Since at least 2014, vessels carrying Iranian oil have switched off the Automatic Identification System (AIS) onboard before delivering oil to Syria, as a means of concealing the true destination and recipient of this Iranian oil," Treasury said Tuesday.
Payments for this oil were made by the Central Bank of Iran to Mir Business Bank using Iran-based Tabir Kish Medical and Pharmaceutical Company, which was "repeatedly" used to facilitate illicit transfers for oil sales, Treasury said. Once the funds were transferred, Global Vision Group would transfer paying to Promsyrioimport to pay for the oil, Treasury said.
Treasury on Tuesday also issued an advisory to maritime petroleum shippers warning of sanctions risks related to shipping petroleum to Syria.
In the notice, Treasury said that multiple tactics are being use to obfuscate the destination of oil bound for Syria, including falsifying cargo and vessel documents, ship-to-ship transfers, and disabling AIS.
"The United States will aggressively seek to impose sanctions against any party involved in shipping oil to Syria, or seeking to evade our sanctions on Iranian oil," Sigal Mandelker, a Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. "Shipping companies, insurers, vessel owners, managers and operators should all be aware of the grave consequences of engaging in sanctionable conduct involving Iranian oil shipments."
