U.S. Hits Iran With New Sanctions

[DonViejo]

Source: The Daily Beast



The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday slapped sanctions on several Iranian companies, individuals, and officials accused of running an illegal currency-exchange scheme to fund a blacklisted elite military unit. In tandem with the United Arab Emirates, the Treasury Department singled out three companies and six individuals accused of funneling U.S. currency to the Quds Force, a wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, through front companies in the Emirates. “Countries around the world must be vigilant against Iran’s efforts to exploit their financial institutions to exchange currency and fund nefarious actions of the IRGC-QF and the world’s largest state sponsor of terror,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. The move came just two days after President Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and vowed to reimpose sanctions against Tehran, and just one day after Israel accused the Quds Force of launching a rocket attack against Israeli targets in the Golan Heights.

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[BumRushDaShow]

1. "efforts to exploit their financial institutions to exchange currency and fund nefarious actions"

Like Mnunchin's 8 junkets utilizing a military jet vs going commercial.

[neohippie]

2. But Trump didn't sanction his own deals

Trump has deals with ties to Iran's revolutionary guard, but he's apparently not sanctioning those companies

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-...didnt-disclose

In response to decades of U.S. and global sanctions, the Revolutionary Guard has created hundreds of private companies that work as a loose network, allowing the Revolutionary Guard to conceal the movement of sanctions-evading money into and out of Iran, purchase crucial components for weapons of mass destruction, and evade sanctions in other ways. These companies follow a similar pattern: they are, typically, construction or engineering firms run by veterans of the Revolutionary Guard that appear, to the outside world, as independent companies but act under the direction of Guard leadership.

After Trump’s speech, the Treasury named Shahid Alamolhoda Industries, Rastafann Ertebat Engineering Company, and Fanamoj as, essentially, tools of the Revolutionary Guard. Strikingly, the Treasury did not name Azarpassillo, an Iranian firm with a leadership made up of lifelong Revolutionary Guard officers. Azarpassillo’s leaders have been named by U.S. officials as likely money launderers for the Revolutionary Guard and, through their international construction operations, the company is ideally suited to provide W.M.D. components.

Azarpassillo has another interesting connection; one of its apparent partners in money laundering, the Mammadov family of Azerbaijan, was also, until quite recently, in business with the Trump Organization. In fact, for the entire Presidential campaign, the Trump Organization knew that it was actively involved with a company that was likely laundering money for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. This is not a wild conspiracy theory; it is an acknowledged fact, confirmed by Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s general counsel, and not disputed by the White House or any of the people involved. Ivanka Trump directly oversaw the relationship with the Mammadov family, led by Ziya Mammadov, a man whom American diplomats have called “notoriously corrupt even for Azerbaijan.”

[IronLionZion]

3. Which only helps their extremists

The peace deal helped their moderates get support. When faced with foreign hostility, voters lean towards hard liners.