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A Turkey-based company and its owner have been slapped with sanctions from the US Treasury Department along with two other companies in Lebanon for giving “critical financial support” to a financial network supporting Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF).
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in a statement on Wednesday accused the İstanbul-based Mira Ihracat Ithalat Petrol, which is involved in the import and export of oil products, of purchasing, transporting and selling Iranian commodities on the global market.
The company’s owner and CEO, Ibrahim Talal al-Uwayr, a Syrian national using the alias İbrahim Ağaoğlu, has also been hit by the US sanctions.
According to the US Treasury, Mira’s activities are overseen by Iran-based, US-designated Hezbollah finance facilitator Ali Qasir, and the profits from Mira’s sales are ultimately shared with Hezbollah. US-designated Hezbollah finance financial officials Muhammad Qasir and Muhammad Amir Alchwiki have used Mira to conduct commercial activities, and al-Uwayr is accused of working with Qasir and Alchwiki to direct Mira’s trading activities.
“Mira Ihracat Ithalat Petrol is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Hizballah. Ibrahim Talal al-Uwayr is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for owning or controlling, directly or indirectly, Mira,” OFAC said.
Turkey hosts more than 3.5 million Syrian refugees who have taken shelter in the country due to the ongoing civil war in Syria. Some of these refugees established businesses in Turkey over the years, and around 240,000 of them have acquired Turkish citizenship.
OFAC said Mira, its owner and two Lebanon-based companies, Yara Offshore SAL and Hydro Company for Drilling Equipment Rental, have generated hundreds of millions of dollars worth of revenue from selling Iranian commodities, including to the Syrian government. It said the commodity sales provide a key source of funding for the IRGC-QF and Hezbollah’s continued terrorist activities and support to other terrorist organizations throughout the region.
“Today’s action underscores our resolve to prevent the IRGC-QF and its proxy terrorist groups from exploiting the international trading system to fund their destabilizing activities,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “The United States will continue to take action to expose and disrupt these illicit schemes.”
As part of OFAC’s sanctions, all property and interests in property of the designated companies and person that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by US persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.