US slaps new curbs on Iran

The US Treasury placed two Iranian business groups on its sanctions blacklist yesterday, saying both were important suppliers of Tehran’s missile programme and facilitators of its alleged proliferation activities. The Treasury, working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said the “Dehghan Network” of Hamed Dehghan and Hadi Dehghan, had procured and supplied “military-grade electronic components” to an Iranian engineering company that works with the military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Dehghans work through their company Ebtekar Sanat Ilya, and a Hong Kong front company Green Industries (Hong Kong) Limited, the Treasury said. A second group dubbed the “Shariat Network,” controlled by Seyed Hossein Shariat and focused on his Asre Sanat Eshragh Company, was also blacklisted for supplying aluminum alloy products to Iranian entities already sanctioned for their missile proliferation and nuclear weapons programmes.

The sanctions freeze any property those names have in US jurisdictions and aim to lock those blacklisted out of global commercial and financial networks by banning US individuals and companies. The Treasury threatened sanctions against “any foreign financial institution that knowingly facilitates a significant transaction or provides significant financial services for any of the individuals designated today.”