UK Sanctions On Tehran, Moscow ‘Taking The Wheels Off Russia’s War Machine’
More than nine months into the Ukraine conflict, the UK Tuesday sanctioned an Iranian company and three people over supplying “second rate” drones to Russia.
More than nine months into the Ukraine conflict, the UK Tuesday sanctioned an Iranian company and three people over supplying “second rate” drones to Russia.
The Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar, its director Yousef Aboutalebi were designated along with Brigadier General Abdollah Meehrabi, a military research head, and Afshin Khajeh Fard, head of Iran’s Aviations Industries Organization. A press release from the British foreign office cited James Cleverly, the foreign minister, saying that MADO was “the company responsible for manufacturing engines for the drones…used by Russia in Ukraine.”
Any assets held in the United Kingdom by those sanctioned can now be seized. The individuals will not be permitted to enter the UK, and no British citizen may transfer money to them.
The UK also designated 12 Russian military commanders, “including [those leading] units implicated in attacks on Ukrainian cities.” The press release noted that “directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects is a serious violation of international law – those responsible must be held to account.”
This followed the European Union Monday designating four individuals, including the head of Iran’s air force, over alleged drone supplies, as well four military contractors or design companies. This came in addition to two Iranian military commanders in November. Both the UK and the EU say the sanctions are intended to change the behavior of those sanctioned.
Cleverly said UK sanctions were “taking the wheels off the Russian war machine.” The press release referred to “information” released by the US December 9 - apparently a statement by White House Security spokesman John Kirby - showing Iran had become “one of Russia’s top military backers.”
Kirby spoke mainly then of US “concern” that Russia “intended to provide Iran with advanced military components,” while senior US officials were widely quoted that Russia was ready to send Sukhoi SU-35 fighter jets to Iran, which has been unable to acquire modern fighters since the 1990s.
In other anonymous briefings, the Washington Post quoted a US “military official” December 9 that Russia had Iranian ballistic missiles, and that Tehran would receive “up to $1 billion” and “other, still unknown inducements” for setting up drone productions inside Russia. Kirby was one of two US officials saying on-the-record the same week that the US had no evidence of Iran transferring missiles to Russia.
‘Desperate need’
The UK press release explaining its latest sanctions reiterated that Iran sending “hundreds of drones to Russia” violated “its international legal obligations,” presumably referring to the US and UK argument this would violate a clause in United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, an agreement the US left in 2018 imposing ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Iran to slash its international trade.
Cleverly said the “Iranian regime” was “isolated internationally” due to “brutal repression of its own people” and a “threat it poses in the Middle East” and was therefore “in desperate need of support from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson called this week in the Wall Street Journal for Nato to give Ukraine longer-range missiles including ATACMS (surface-to-surface missiles with a 300km range), but he also suggested the war could end with Russian retaining regions held before February 24. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rules this out, with the US saying publicly it’s up to him to decide.
UK and US officials maintain their approach - arming Ukraine but not sending the most offensive weapons Zelenskyy demands – is slowly degrading Russian capacities. British military aid to Ukraine has reached £2.3 billion ($2.84 billion) and US aid $20 billion. The EU agreed Monday €2 billion ($2.1 million) in addition to the €2 billion already sent.
“Defence Intelligence reports suggest that Russian armed forces are struggling to replenish their missile reserves,” Cleverly said, according to the British press release, “while they are increasingly forced to rely on second rate [sic] drones supplied by Iran to keep up their inhumane bombardments of the Ukrainian people.”
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called the package “very tough,” and an EU foreign minister’s statement criticized a “brutal and disproportionate use of force” against protests. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the sanctions would target “in particular those who are responsible for the executions, the violence against innocent people...especially the Revolutionary Guards.”
Iran Monday executed the second person over the unrest, which has seen the deaths of 488 protestors and 62 members of the police or security forces, according to Norway-based HRANA.
Among those sanctioned Monday under the human-rights rubric were Major-General Abdolrahim Mousavi, commander-in-chief of Iran’s army. A range of designated regional commanders of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) were largely concentrated in the mainly Kurdish northwest, which along with the Baluchi south east has seen the most violence. IRGC commanders in the provinces of Tehran, Mazandaran, Alborz, Markazi, were also listed along with Sistan-Baluchistan’s provincial police chief.
As well as designating state broadcaster IRIB, the EU listed Peyman Jebelli, its director, IRIB’s deputy director, its head of foreign services, and Ali Rezvani, who is a "journalist-interrogator" of political prisoners. Ahmad Khatami, Tehran prayer leader, was added, the EU statement said, as the cleric “with a large audience…leverages his position to verbally attack and incite violence against protesters.” All designated individuals risk the loss of assets in the EU.
The EU in November sanctioned Hossein Salami, the IRGC commander, and Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC aerospace force, as well as the aerospace force and a military company, over sending military drones to Russia, but the EU has not sanctioned the IRGC as a whole. The United States in 2019 listed the Guards as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ as part of its ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions, the only occasion it has designated part of a state’s armed forces.
Under Monday’s new sanctions, the EU designated four additional individuals, including the head of Iran’s air force, over the drones, as well four military contractors or design companies.
The EU foreign ministers’ statement said the drones were “being used indiscriminately by Russia against Ukrainian civilian population and infrastructure causing horrendous destruction and human suffering.” The ministers agreed another €2 billion ($2.1 million) in military aid for Ukraine, adding to the €2 billion already sent, while a further package of sanctions on Russia, the EU’s ninth, is reportedly being held up by Hungary. The US has sent Ukraine $20 billion in weapons, and the UK $2.3 billion.
‘Turning Iran into a second North Korea’
The new EU sanctions on Iran over human rights abuses brought to 166 individuals and 12 entities the total it has sanctioned on such grounds. Those designated in the last batch on November 14 included provincial police commanders in Kurdish and Baluchi regions, the army’s ground-forces commander, the minister of the interior, and members of the Tehran ‘morality police.’
With the rial falling further as US ‘maximum pressure’ continues and unrest undermines business confidence, Hannah Neumann, a German Green Party member of the European Parliament, told Iran International in an interview she saw no justification for European states breaking off diplomatic links or expelling Tehran from United Nations bodies.
“I don’t think it helps protestors in Iran, if we turn the country into a second North Korea by closing all our embassies,” she said. “This is my personal opinion. Others have a different one. I respect that. Isn’t that what we all fight for, democracy and freedom of expression?”
Neumann claimed that “what is happening in Iran is the world’s first feminist revolution.” She said it would give hope to women in Egypt, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East as well as around the globe.
In a confidential warning to its clients seen by Iran International, London-based Lloyds Marine Insurance Company said that the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah illegally send gold from Venezuela to Iran to finance the terrorist activities of Tehran-backed militias in Lebanon, bypassing sanctions.
The document issued on October 28 is titled: Illicit trade and transfer of gold and Iranian oil – IRGC Quds Force and Hezbollah.
“The purpose of this e-alert is to inform the market of the illicit shipment of gold by the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah from Venezuela to Iran to raise funds for terrorist activities, facilitated by the sale of Iranian oil, in contravention of sanctions,” reads the letter.
Lloyds further added that flights from Caracas to Tehran via Mahan Air are being used as an illicit channel to ship gold to pay for Iranian oil, in breach of applicable sanctions.
Mahan Air is a privately owned Iranian airline linked to the IRGC sanctioned by US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for weapons transfers.
“The gold is then sold in Turkey, and other Middle Eastern countries, to generate funds for terrorist activity,” the leaked document alleged.
Lloyds also identifies some people who have been easing the illegal shipment of gold from Venezuela on behalf of the IRGC Qods Force.
The first actor, according to Lloyds, is Hezbollah’s representative in Iran Ali Kassir, who is also a US OFAC designee under the SDGT program (Global Sanctions Regulation against Terrorism).
The other is Muhammad Jaafar Kassir, who is a senior Hezbollah official also designated by OFAC for his illegal activities linked with the militant group.
The Iranian airline Mahan Air is introduced as the third actor in the unlawful acquisition and shipment of gold from Venezuela on behalf of the IRGC Quds Force.
World’s largest marine insurance company has also called on its clients to observe enhanced due diligence measures if any of the entities mentioned are involved, as the coverage provided could indirectly expose the managing agents to risks of terrorist financing, money laundering and tax evasion.
US former Special Representative for Venezuela, Elliot Abrams for the first time in April 2020 announced that Iran is receiving gold for sending gasoline to Caracas.
Iranian officials denied receiving payment for fuel shipped to Venezuela by that time. However, Yahya Rahim-Safavi, a top Revolutionary Guards officer, who is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's advisor in military affairs, told state media later in 2020 that “We gave gasoline to Venezuela and received gold bullion and we brought the gold with airplanes to Iran to prevent any incident during transit.”
Argentina grounded an Iran-linked Venezuelan Boeing 747 cargo plane on June 12, 2022 after it landed in Buenos Aires without any prior announcements.
Washington on August 3 asked permission to confiscate the plane impounded in Argentina on suspicions of links to international terrorist groups.
Based on revealed documents, there are other airplanes that are used for taking gold from Caracas to Tehran, but the seizure and future confiscation of the Boeing, which is already in Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires, is a major step to erode Hezbollah’s economic resources.
The illegal gold sale operation revealed by the Lloyd’s company was also facilitated by a fixer called Seyed Badroddin Naiemael Moosavi.
The 47-year-old Iranian businessman controlled the load of gold that he obtained at a discounted price in exchange for the oil shipments to Venezuela. He was the person, who sold the golds on the black market in Turkey, and as a result millions of dollars were used to finance Hezbollah’s terrorist acts in the Middle East.