A new round of sanctions targeting international companies and individuals supporting Iran’s production of Shahed attack drones was declared on Sept. 27 by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
It was the ninth such sanction package aimed at deterring the proliferation of attack drones from Iran to Russia and other “destabilizing actors."
Despite the existence of these sanctions, international companies have still found ways to bypass them and continue to do business, including supplying drone components, with Iran and Russia.
The newly sanctioned entities and individuals are located in Iran, Turkey, China, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates.
They have been allegedly involved with the illicit transfer of parts to Iran.
Some of them, such as HongKong Himark, have explicitly sought to disguise that Iran was the recipient of the transfers through the falsification of documents, according to the Treasury Department.
As a result of the sanctions, “all transactions by U.S. persons or within the United States (including transactions transiting the United States) that involve any property or interests in property of blocked or designated persons are prohibited”.