US Designates Sanctions Evasion Network Led By Turkish Businessman - Treasury

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th December, 2022) The United States has designated a sanctions evasion network led by a Turkish businessman that facilitated the sale of oil to Iran's military, the US Department of the Treasury said on Thursday.

"Today, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating a sanctions evasion network led by businessman Sitki Ayan that has facilitated the sale of hundreds of millions of Dollars' worth of oil for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF)," the statement said.

Ayan's network established international sales contracts for Iranian oil with foreign purchasers and arranged shipments of oil while helping to launder the proceeds and "obscuring the oil's Iranian origin and the IRGC-QF's interest in the sales," the statement said.

"Today's action complements Treasury's May designations and demonstrates the United States' ongoing commitment to deny the IRGC-QF its revenue streams and to target those who abuse the international financial system in support of the group," the statement added.

The US government has repeatedly said that it will continue to accelerate its enforcement of sanctions on Iran's oil sales as Tehran accelerates its nuclear program in violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The United States unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018.