US blacklists Iranian oil tanker, sanctions its captain

By Hakan Copur

WASHINGTON (AA) - The U.S. has blacklisted the Iranian oil tanker Adrian Darya 1 and sanctioned its captain, the Treasury Department said Friday.

"The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action today against Adrian Darya 1, an oil tanker transporting 2.1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil ultimately benefiting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF),” the department said in a statement on its website.

The United States has designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

“Vessels like the Adrian Darya 1 enable the IRGC-QF to ship and transfer large volumes of oil, which they attempt to mask and sell illicitly to fund the regime’s malign activities and propagate terrorism,” said Sigal Mandelker, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

“Anyone providing support to the Adrian Darya 1 risks being sanctioned. The path to relief is to change course and not allow the IRGC-QF to profit from illicit oil sales.”

“@JZarif guaranteed to the UK that the IRGC oil tanker #Grace1 / #AdrianDarya1 would not head to Syria. We have reliable information that the tanker is underway and headed to Tartus, Syria. I hope it changes course. It was a big mistake to trust Zarif,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter, referring to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.