The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued sanctions on Tuesday targeting finance and trade facilitators for the Syrian regime, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the Houthis and Hezbollah.
In two separate announcements, the US treasury listed six entities, one individual and two tankers that are based or registered in Liberia, India, Vietnam, Lebanon and Kuwait, as well as 11 individuals and entities supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad through the facilitation of illicit financial transfers, trafficking of illegal drugs, and extraction and export of Syrian commodities.
The Sa’id al-Jamal web of companies, vessels and collaborators, including Liberia-based Hassaleh International Company, Panama-flagged DAWN II, India-based KNH Shipping Private Limited, Palau-flagged ABYSS, Vietnam-based Quoc Viet Marine Transport JSC, India-based Melody Shipmanagement Pvt Ltd, Lebanon-based Syrian money exchanger Tawfiq Muhammad Sa’id al-Law, and Kuwait-based companies, Orchidia Regional for General Trading and Contracting Company and Mass Com Group General Trading and Contracting Company WLL, were targeted by the sanctions for providing support to multiple terrorist groups, including Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the Houthis and Hezbollah.
“This action, the sixth round of sanctions targeting the network of Iran-based, IRGC-QF-backed Houthi financial facilitator Sa’id al-Jamal since December 2023, represents yet another step in a concerted campaign to disrupt IRGC-QF finances and its support to terrorist proxies such as the Houthis,” the treasury said in a statement.
In another statement on Tuesday, the treasury announced sanctions against Syrian nationals Taher al-Kayali and his Syria-based Neptunus LLC, and Mahmoud Abulilah Al-Dj, owner of Al-Tair company and FreeBird Travel and Tourism, in addition to Syria-based Maya Exchange Company (Maya), alongside previously sanctioned Syrian exchanges Al-Fadel Exchange and Al-Adham Exchange, for facilitating millions of dollars of illicit transactions, drug trafficking, foreign currency transfers and sanctions evasion schemes for the benefit of the Syrian regime.
Muhammad ‘Ali Al-Minala of the Central Bank of Syria, Aleksey Makarov, Vice President of sanctioned Russian Financial Corporation Bank (RFC Bank), Limited Liability Company “STG Logistic,” United Arab Emirates and Switzerland-based Grains Middle East Trading DWC-LLC and its chief executive officer, Yafi David, also figured on the list.
Syria has become a leading producer and exporter of Captagon, a highly addictive amphetamine-type stimulant trafficked illegally throughout the Middle East and Europe.
