Washington
9 March 2023

The U.S. designated 39 entities that, according to the Treasury Department, made up “a significant ‘shadow banking’ network, one of several multi-jurisdictional illicit finance systems which grant sanctioned Iranian entities… access to the international financial system and obfuscate their trade with foreign customers”. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored that “the U.S. will continue to disrupt attempts to evade U.S. sanctions, and we will use the tools at our disposal to protect both the U.S. and international financial system”. The same day, the U.S. also announced sanctions against what the Treasury Department described as “a network of five [China-based] companies and one individual for supporting Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) procurement efforts”. A senior official contended that “Iran is directly implicated in the Ukrainian civilian casualties that result from Russia’s use of Iranian UAVs in Ukraine… The U.S. will continue to target global Iranian procurement networks that supply Russia with deadly UAVs for use in its illegal war in Ukraine”.

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