President Joe Biden's administration is targeting a group of businesses it alleges are involved in an "oil smuggling network" meant to evade sanctions on Iran and fund regional activities by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military force.
The US Treasury Department today applied sanctions on Omani national Mahmood Rashid Amur Al Habsi, who it says allegedly partnered with senior IRGC officials to arrange shipments of Iranian oil to customers in foreign countries, including buyers in eastern Asia. The sanctions will also apply to three businesses that Al Habsi allegedly owns, or directs: Nimr International, Orbit Petrochemicals Trading and Bravery Maritime.
The IRGC is using foreign intermediaries to obscure involvement in Iranian oil sales whose proceeds fund "malign activities at the expense of the Iranian people," the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control director Andrea Gacki said.
Even with sanctions in place, Iran has managed to ship oil by using intermediaries, ship-to-ship transfers and other ways to mask the origin of supplies. Iran supplied as much as 800,000 b/d to China in early 2021, but Beijing has since imposed restrictions on Chinese independent refiners' ability to import crude. Iran's oil exports averaged 400,000 b/d in 2020, according to estimates from the US Energy Information Administration.
The latest sanctions come amid stalled indirect US-Iranian nuclear talks that could result in lifting of US sanctions. Recent US court filings and government actions point to a wide network of intermediaries Iran allegedly used to mask its exports, including US-based firms and companies registered in the UK, Oman and the UAE.
