US targets Iran, Russia over oil sent to Syria

Vessels carrying Iran oil have ‘switched off’ their transponders to conceal Syria deliveries

The US has moved to disrupt an Iranian-Russian network that sent millions of barrels of oil to Syria and hundreds of millions of dollars to indirectly fund Hamas and Hezbollah.

The complicated arrangement, described by the US Treasury in a statement on Tuesday, involved a Syrian citizen allegedly using his Russiabased company to ship Iranian oil to Syria with the aid of a Russian state-owned company.

Syria then helped transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to Hezbollah, which functions as a political party that is part of the Lebanese government and as a militia, as well as to Hamas in Gaza.

The US Treasury Department alleged that since 2014, vessels carrying Iranian oil have switched off transponders to conceal deliveries to Syria.

The Treasury, the State Department and the US Coast Guard have issued an advisory to the maritime community about the sanctions risks of shipping oil to Syria’s regime.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman called the sanctions “fruitless, illogical and inefficient”. Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying: “Those who designed and implemented these sanctions will understand sooner or later that they will not achieve their goals.”

The alleged arrangement shows how Russia has sought to undercut US policy toward Syria, where Washington and Moscow back opposite sides of a civil war that began in 2011, as well as towards Iran, which the US wants to curb its nuclear and missile programmes and support for militant proxies.

“Today we are acting against a complex scheme Iran and Russia have used to bolster the [Syrian President Bashar Al] Assad regime and generate funds for Iranian malign activity,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

“Central Bank of Iran officials continue to exploit the international financial system.”

Richard Nephew, a sanctions expert at Columbia University, said: “The arrangement exposes Russia’s efforts to support Al Assad for their own interests, which has the function of thwarting the US desire to no longer have Al Assad in power.”

Those targeted include Syrian Mohammad Amer Alchwiki and his Russiabased company Global Vision Group, which were central to the delivery of Iranian oil to Syria and the transfer of funds to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force’s “lethal proxies”, the Treasury Department said in a statement.