Washington: The US sanctioned an Iraqi bank, Iranian offshore banks, a Dubai-based Iranian oil intermediary and a Hong Kong front company, and blacklisted a Cuban state-owned bank, as the Trump administration tightened what it calls Operation Economic Outcast against Tehran.
“The noose is tightening around Iran’s economy, and not even Iran’s so-called allies can save it,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “The Department of the Treasury will not relent until the Iranian regime’s coffers are empty and every remaining financial lifeline sustaining its war machine has been severed.”
The Treasury said the networks had moved “hundreds of millions of dollars through shell companies and foreign-exchange specialists across the Middle East and Asia”.
Among those designated was Sayyed Ruhollah Razavi, whom the Treasury described as “one of the top oil trustees on whom the Iranian regime relies to sell oil and repatriate the revenue”. Living in Dubai, Razavi was responsible, before the US blockade on Iranian oil exports, for “shipping millions of barrels of oil overseas each month” on behalf of the National Iranian Oil Company, the Treasury said.
It said such networks “move funds through Hong Kong to the UAE and Türkiye where they are converted to gold and cash and then smuggled on Mahan Air flights to Iran and its terrorist proxies around the world”.
Hong Kong-based Elitesphere Trading Co., Limited was designated for moving funds for an affiliate of Iran’s Shahr Bank through a network of brokers and front companies. Sadegh Bavi, an Iranian-Dominican national listed in Dubai and described as an IRGC-Qods Force facilitator, was also sanctioned.
The Treasury also designated Iraq-based International Development Bank for Investment and Finance, which it said provides “U.S. dollar access for Iran”, and two Iranian offshore banks, Jazireh International Bank Company and Chabahar International Bank Overseas Company.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio separately sanctioned Cuba’s state-owned Banco Internacional de Comercio S.A. (BICSA), which he said had provided services to Iran’s sanctioned Karafarin Bank since at least 2022.
“For too long, Communist Cuba has been allowed to operate as an outpost for malign actors and terror groups – including the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism – to target the United States,” Rubio said.
“Let me be clear: the Trump Administration will not tolerate a rogue state hosting hostile foreign military, intelligence and terror operations less than a hundred miles from the American homeland,” he said.
The Treasury warned that “engaging in certain transactions involving the persons designated today may risk the imposition of secondary sanctions on participating foreign financial institutions”.
In a separate action, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an alert asking banks to report potential Iranian abuse of religious charity networks, including diversion of religious tithes known as khums.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury will not allow the Iranian regime to continue its long history of abusing religious institutions to line the pockets of its elites and fund terrorism,” Bessent said.
Operation Economic Outcast was announced by Bessent on August 24. Earlier rounds targeted shadow fleet and procurement networks across the UAE, Hong Kong, China and other jurisdictions.
(IANS)
