Treasury Targets Iranian UAV Program, Steel Industry, and Automobile Companies in Response to Unprecedented Attack on Israel
April 18, 2024
New Industries Targeted Generate Billions of Dollars in Annual Revenue
WASHINGTON — Today, in response to Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel on April 13, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is targeting 16 individuals and two entities enabling Iran’s UAV production, including engine types that power Iran’s Shahed variant UAVs, which were used in the April 13 attack. These actors work on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), its UAV production arm, Kimia Part Sivan Company (KIPAS), and other Iranian manufacturers of UAVs and UAV engines. OFAC is also designating five companies in multiple jurisdictions providing component materials for steel production to Iran’s Khuzestan Steel Company (KSC), one of Iran’s largest steel producers, or purchasing KSC’s finished...
1) This designation notice is notable for the portion pertaining to OFAC “designating five companies in multiple jurisdictions providing component materials for steel production to Iran’s Khuzestan Steel Company (KSC), one of Iran’s largest steel producers, or purchasing KSC’s finished steel products”.
As noted in the notice, “KSC was designated pursuant to E.O. 13871 on January 10, 2020 for operating in the iron, steel, aluminum, or copper sectors of Iran.” In addition to the “operating in” provision, EO 13871 includes a secondary sanction provisions aimed at persons that have “to have knowingly engaged...in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of iron, iron products, aluminum, aluminum products, steel, steel products, copper, or copper products from Iran”. In addition to that, the EO includes the standard quasi-secondary sanctions targeting provision aimed at persons that “materially...