The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the State Department, and the US Coast Guard have issued a statement to warn the international shipping industry about the dangers involved with shipping oil to the Government of Syria, including the possibility of US sanctions.
The statement warns that some countries, like Iran, are already shipping their oil to Syria and that any shipping companies, vessel owners, managers, operators, insurers, and financial institutions that help to facilitate this trade through any means risk coming under US sanctions.
OFAC already sanctioned Iranian entities involved in supplying Iranian oil for Syria back in November 2018, at the same time that they put vast sanctions on the Iranian Regime’s oil industry as a whole. The scheme that Iran used not only gave oil to the Assad dictatorship, but also gave Iran hundreds of millions of dollars, which the mullahs spent on their terror proxy groups (i.e. Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF)).
The statement read: “The United States is committed to enforcing sanctions against those who engage in prohibited transactions under the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 560 (ITSR), and will continue to aggressively target those involved in sanctionable activities under other Iran-related sanctions authorities in support of the Iranian regime’s malign activities.”
Any individuals and entities working with the sanctioned Iranian entities risks being placed on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List, as well as sanctions or fines.
The statement read: “Further, non-US persons that knowingly own, operate, control, or insure a vessel that transports crude oil from Iran to Syria or other countries that have not received a significant reduction exception… could be subject to secondary sanctions under the Iran Sanctions Act. Even when a significant reduction exception applies, the involvement of the IRGC or any other person designated in connection with the Iranian regime’s support for international terrorism or its proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or their means of delivery is outside the scope of the significant reduction exception and the conduct could be subject to US sanctions.”
The US further warned that the Iranian regime may well try to hide the origin and destination of its oil through Falsifying Cargo and Vessel Documents, Ship to Ship (STS) Transfers, Disabling Automatic Identification System (AIS), and Vessel Name Changes, so it urged the shipping industry to look out for those or face the consequences.
Source » ncr-iran