US issues fresh Iran-related sanctions, website shows
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People walking past an anti-US mural next to the former US embassy in Iran’s capital, Tehran, on July 9.
PHOTO: EPA
- The US imposed new sanctions on Iran after Iran resumed attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, targeting key individuals and entities linked to the Revolutionary Guards.
- Ali Ansari, an Iranian banker and financier for Iran's leader Mojtaba Khamenei, was sanctioned for diverting public funds into overseas assets benefiting elites and the IRGC.
- US Treasury also targeted Iranian exchange houses that moved billions for sanctioned banks using shell companies to hide illicit financial activities amid recent regional tensions.
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WASHINGTON - The United States on July 10 issued new Iran-related sanctions following Iran’s resumption of attacks on international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the Treasury Department said.
The sanctions target Ali Ansari, an Iranian banker and businessman based in Dubai who had previously been sanctioned by Britain for his role in financially supporting the activities of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, among other individuals and entities, Treasury said.
Treasury described Ansari as a “key financier” for Iran’s new leader Mojtaba Khamenei, saying he had diverted publicly funded wealth into an extensive overseas portfolio of real estate and commercial holdings to enrich himself, government elites, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also targeted key Iranian exchange houses that it said moved billions of dollars annually on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks, using layers of shell companies to obscure the government’s illicit financial activity.
The fresh sanctions were announced on a day of relative calm after a week of renewed conflict, when three Qatari and Saudi commercial tankers came under Iranian fire, prompting the US to hit Iranian sites, and Iran to respond with strikes on US military sites in Gulf states. REUTERS
