The United States on Thursday (local time) sanctioned five UAE-based companies for "purchasing Iranian Petroleum products".
Morgan Ortagus, US State Department Spokesperson tweeted: "US announced new sanctions on five UAE-based companies, which purchased Iranian petroleum products. Those who evade our sanctions are enabling Iran's support for terrorism that destabilizes the region."
"The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today took action against five United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based companies that facilitate the Iranian regime's petroleum and petrochemical sales. In 2019, these five companies collectively purchased hundreds of thousands of metric tons of petroleum products from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)," US Department of the Treasury said in a statement.
The statement alleged Iran's petroleum and petrochemical industries are major sources of revenue for the Iranian regime, which has "used these funds to support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force's (IRGC-QF) malign activities throughout the Middle East, including the support of terrorist groups."
It stated that at least three of these companies have falsified documents to conceal the Iranian origin of these shipments.
US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said in a tweet: "The U.S. sanctioned five companies for facilitating #Iran's petroleum sales. These sales fund Iran's proxies, not its people. Since 2012, the Iranian regime has spent over $16 billion to support terrorist groups - they should support the needs of the Iranian people instead.
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