US Treasury sanctions 2 firms for shipping $100M Iranian commodities to China

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) – The US Treasury Department on Tuesday said it has imposed sanctions on two companies that own and operate a vessel that transported Iran’s Defense Ministry commodities valued at more than $100 million to China.

The companies registered in Hong Kong and the Marshall Islands, own and operate the Panama-flagged KOHANA, which has shipped more than $100 million in Iranian commodities to businesses in the People’s Republic of China on behalf of Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).

MODAFL facilitates the delivery of Iranian weapons, most notably unmanned aerial vehicles, to Russia in support of the war in Ukraine and to Iranian-aligned militia groups in the Middle East, it said in a statement.

"Iran’s Ministry of Defense is engaged in a series of schemes to fund destabilizing activities that range from supplying militia groups with weapons used to attack U.S. forces to aiding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine," said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. "Treasury will continue to disrupt the illicit revenue-generation efforts that support these destabilizing acts."