Six years after SWIFT cut ties with Iranian banks during the last round of Western sanctions on the Persian nation, on Thursday afternoon the U.S. took another step toward cutting Iran off from the global economy when the US Treasury announced it was levying sanctions on a financing network and accusing the country’s central bank of helping funnel U.S. dollars to the blacklisted elite military unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard known as the Quds Force, the WSJ reported. WASHINGTON—The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday levied sanctions against several Iranian firms, individuals and officials it said are operating an illegal currency-exchange network in the United Arab Emirates, and accused Iran’s central bank of being complicit in operations that funneled dollars into the country for Iran’s elite military unit, the Quds Force, and Tehran’s regional proxies. The six individuals and three entities, including front companies for the IRGC-QF and currency traders, were sanctioned under U.S. regulations targeting specially designated global terrorist suspects and Iranian financial activity, the Treasury said. It has been estimated that despite sanctions in place prior to the deal, at least $1bn in cash was smuggled into Iran through front companies in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates and Iraq. “The Iranian regime and its central bank have abused access to entities in the UAE to acquire U.S. dollars to fund the IRGC-QF’s malign activities, including to fund and arm its regional proxy groups, by concealing the purpose for which the U.S. dollars were acquired,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. The U.S. Treasury on Thursday issued fresh sanctions related to Iran, two days after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. The sanctions were the first since President Donald Trump this week pulled out of the landmark Iran nuclear deal and announced a return to economy-crippling sanctions against Tehran, and represented a move toward cutting off the Middle Eastern country’s access to dollars. The Trump administration wants a deal that not only permanently restricts Iran’s nuclear program but also stymies its ballistic-missile efforts and curbs Tehran’s support for militants fighting across the region.
In cooperation with United Arab Emirates, the United States Treasury implements new sanctions on six persons and three corporate entities having alleged ties to Iran's Quds Force.