Sections

SpecialOperations.com

The Definitive Spec Ops Resource

THE DEFINITIVE SPEC OPS RESOURCE FOR FITNESS AND SELECTION

economic Sanctions

US Treasury Department Levies More Sanctions on Iran

The U.S. Treasury Department levied fresh sanctions against Iran despite a statement from President Trump that Tehran’s government was acting in compliance with the Nuclear deal they signed with the Obama Administration in 2015. These newest sanctions are directly related to Iran’s ballistic-missile program.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 16 entities and individuals for what it said was “engaging in support of illicit Iranian actors or transnational criminal activity.”

The sanctions target seven entities and five individuals for supporting Iran’s military or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); also targeted: an Iran-based transnational criminal organization and three associated persons. Those targeted include a Chinese national, four Chinese companies, and a Turkish firm. Iran’s testing and development of ballistic missiles, the U.S. State Department said in a separate statement, is “in direct defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 2231,” which endorsed the nuclear agreement.

The State Departments’ statement included: The three networks designated today supported Iran’s military procurement or the IRGC through the development of unmanned aerial vehicles and military equipment for the IRGC, the production and maintenance of fast attack boats for the IRGC-Navy, or the procurement of electronic components for entities that support Iran’s military. 

The transnational criminal organization designated today, along with two Iranian businessmen and an associated entity, orchestrated the theft of U.S. and western software programs which, at times, were sold to the Government of Iran.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the actions “send a strong signal that the United States cannot and will not tolerate Iran’s provocative and destabilizing behavior.”

The move comes a day after Trump certified that Iran was complying with the nuclear agreement it signed with the U.S. and other world powers. Trump, as a presidential candidate, had called the deal “the worst” ever and had vowed to walk away from it. Under the law, the administration must inform Congress every 90 days whether Iran is still complying with the agreement, under which it agreed to freeze its nuclear program in return for the lifting of some international sanctions. This is the second time the Trump administration has certified that Iran is in compliance.

The message from the Trump administration seems to be that Iran is on notice, that even if they comply with the terms of the nuclear deal, that the US will not look the other way in other activities that the Iranians are conducting.

To read the entire article from The Atlantic click here:

Photo courtesy The White House

United States Sanctions North Korea and Their Military Suppliers

While the United States is unable to stop the North Koreans from abandoning their nuclear weapons program, they’re going after the companies that do business with the government of Kim Jong Un.

The Treasury Department has slapped additional sanctions on the financial, coal mining and military interests of North Korea by targeting companies that aid it in obtaining weapons of mass destruction and its continued violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

The sanctions bar the companies and individuals from doing business with American citizens, and any assets they have in the United States or under U.S. control would be frozen

The sanctions are mostly symbolic since it’s unlikely that the targeted companies or individuals have any such business dealings or U.S. assets. Previous sanctions have had little apparent effect.

The penalties come as the Trump administration seeks to block North Korea’s ability to build a nuclear weapon small enough to put atop a missile, and a ballistic missile powerful enough to deliver it to U.S. shores.

North Korea also has test-fired at least nine ballistic missiles so far this year, most recently on Monday. That missile flew 280 miles toward Japan before falling in the ocean.

The U.S. on Tuesday conducted its own test of a missile defense system, launching a rocket from California that officials said successfully hit and destroyed a target warhead fired from an atoll in the mid-Pacific.

The latest sanctions target North Korea’s army and Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces, its revenue from mining coal and minerals, and several overseas financial operations, according to the Treasury statement.

Among the companies is Moscow-based Ardis-Bearings LLC and its director, Igor Aleksandrovich Michurin. It allegedly works with a North Korean trading company, Tangun, which the U.S. accuses of securing supplies for the nuclear program.

The order also blacklisted Korea Computer Center, a state-run technology research and development company that generates income for the government of Kim Jong Un, with reported overseas locations in Germany, China, India and the Middle East, Treasury said.

President Trump called the North Korean attempts to gain a nuclear arsenal an imminent threat to the United States and has repeatedly called on the north’s biggest ally to do more to stop their nuclear testing. The Chinese have encouraged North Korea to cease and have been working back channels to get them to obey the UN sanctions.

To read the entire article from Los Angeles Times, click here:

Photo courtesy Getty