On September 27, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a fresh round of sanctions aimed at international companies and individuals supporting Iran’s production of Shahed attack drones. This marked the ninth set of sanctions designed to discourage the spread of these drones from Iran to entities like Russia and other destabilizing actors.
Despite these sanctions in place, international firms have managed to circumvent them and continue their business activities, including the supply of drone components, to Iran and Russia. The newly sanctioned entities and individuals are based in Iran, Turkey, China, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. They are suspected of participating in the illegal transfer of parts to Iran.
Some of these entities, like HongKong Himark, have gone to great lengths to conceal Iran as the ultimate recipient of these transfers by falsifying documents, as revealed by the Treasury Department. Consequently, these sanctions prohibit all transactions involving blocked or designated persons’ property or interests for U.S. persons or those within the United States, including transactions that transit the United States.
By FCCT Editorial Team