US sanctions Russia-backed Iran oil smuggling network involving Chinese firms
- The US Treasury says the group raised hundreds of millions for Iran’s Quds Force and Lebanese allies Hezbollah, and helped support proxy militant groups
- The move comes amid stalled negotiations as Washington tries to revive a nuclear deal with Iran
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on what it described as a Russian-backed oil smuggling and money-laundering network for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, even as Washington tries to revive nuclear deal with Iran.
The US Treasury Department said the network was led by current and former Quds Force figures, “backed by senior levels of the Russian Federation government” and included Chinese companies and a former Afghan diplomat.
It had raised hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran’s Quds Force and Tehran’s Lebanese allies Hezbollah, and helped Tehran support proxy militant groups, Treasury said.
The Quds Force is the foreign espionage and paramilitary arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and controls its allied militia abroad. The Trump administration put the guards on the State Department list of foreign terrorist organisations in 2019, the first time Washington formally labelled another nation’s military a terrorist group.
The Biden administration has been engaged in indirect talks to restart a 2015 deal former president Donald Trump abandoned, under which world powers lifted international financial sanctions on Tehran in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.