By Al-Fassel | 2024-04-08

The United States on April 4 designated one entity and 13 associated vessels in an effort to target the sources of Iranian military revenue generation, the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

The designated entities have facilitated trade in support of Iran's Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS) and Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).

"The United States will continue to take action against entities that transport cargoes or facilitate transactions in support of MODAFL and the AFGS, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), or Iran's foreign proxy and partner groups," the State Department said.

"We remain committed to disrupting illicit funding streams financing Iran's production of weapons that support Russia's war against Ukraine and the attacks by Iranian proxy groups throughout the Middle East," it said.

The sanctions target United Arab Emirates-based Oceanlink Maritime DMCC and 13 vessels managed by it, for facilitating the shipment of Iranian commodities on behalf of Iran's AFGS and MODAFL.

One of the vessels, Hecate, recently loaded Iranian commodities valued at more than $100 million via a ship-to-ship (STS) transfer from another sanctioned tanker, the Dover, on behalf of Iran's Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars.

Sepehr Energy was sanctioned last November for its role selling Iranian commodities for the AFGS and MODAFL.

The US Treasury is updating its record of the sanctioned vessel Young Yong, the name of which has been changed to the Saint Light, possibly to obfuscate its identity.

The Saint Light, which also operates under the name Stellar Oracle, conducted an STS transfer on March 27 with a sanctioned vessel operated by the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).

The Saint Light loaded from the Hawk, the NITC's vessel, more than $100 million worth of Iranian commodities. The Hawk had loaded the same cargo on March 22 via an STS transfer from the vessel Kohana, which authorities sanctioned on February 27.

The other sanctioned Oceanlink-managed vessels include the Comoros-flagged Anthea, Boreas, Cape Gas, Glaucus, Oceanus Gas and Hebe; the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged Calypso Gas and Meraki; the Belize-flagged Elsa and Baxter; the Panama-flagged Demeter and the Cook Islands-flagged Ourea.

All these vessels have shipped Iranian commodities, some as recently as March.