The US Treasury announced on Thursday new sanctions targeting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, two days after President Donald Trump announced his country’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The latest sanctions affect six individuals and three companies that had funneled millions of dollars to the Guard's Qods Force.
The Treasury Department said it was acting with the United Arab Emirates to disrupt the network and accused Iran's central bank of actively helping the group to access US dollars held in foreign bank.
"The Iranian regime and its Central Bank have abused access to entities in the UAE to acquire US dollars to fund the IRGC-QF’s malign activities, including to fund and arm its regional proxy groups, by concealing the purpose for which the US dollars were acquired," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
"We are intent on cutting off IRGC revenue streams wherever their source and whatever their destination," he said.
The six individuals and three entities were sanctioned under US regulations targeting specially designated global terrorist suspects and Iranian financial activity, the Treasury said.
The individuals and companies included an IRGC "front company" in Tehran, Jahan Aras Kish, and a Tehran money-changer, Rashed Exchange.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been pushing allies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East to pressure Iran to return to negotiations over its nuclear and missile programs.
Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal has given grace periods of 90 days to six months for companies to wind down their trade with Iran.
In February 2015, Reuters reported that at least $1 billion in cash had been smuggled into Iran despite US and other sanctions. Before it reached Iran, the cash was passed through money changers and front companies in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq, sources told Reuters.
The report said Iran's central bank had worked with other entities, including sanctioned Iranian companies, to find ways to obtain US dollars, including using front companies and their networks. They said the central bank had given the orders to the front companies abroad to buy dollars.
Before the 2015 nuclear deal was reached, front companies had mushroomed in Dubai to facilitate payments to Iran. The use of multiple front companies, which bought dollars from currency traders in Dubai and Iraq, was preferred as it concealed the overall size of the dollar purchasing operation.
The US government made clear Tuesday when Trump announced the end of US participation in the JCPOA nuclear deal that going ahead, Washington was going to ramp up pressure on the IRGC and the Central Bank of Iran.
In announcing the withdrawal on Tuesday, Trump said: “We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction. Any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could also be strongly sanctioned by the United States."
Soon after the announcement Mnuchin made it clear that Washington was acting "under both our primary and secondary sanctions authorities," meaning that European firms with investments or operations in the United States could be targeted if they continue to trade with Iran.
The new sanctions on the currency network ban US individuals and entities from doing business with them, aiming to lock them out of global dollar networks.
