The U.S. designated 20 people and entities Thursday for offering assist to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Pressure (IRGC-QF) to violate Iraq’s sovereignty and exploit its financial system.
“Some of these people help provide the financial support that enables the IRGC-QF to transfer lethal aid to Iranian-backed terrorist groups such as Kata’ib Hizballah (KH) and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), and engage in other malign activities that undermine the Iraqi government’s efforts toward energy independence,” State Division spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus mentioned in a press release.
The designations additionally contains entities and people that exploit Iraq’s dependence on Iranian electrical energy imports for the advantage of the IRGC-QF.
Iraq is allowed to interact in monetary transactions associated to the import of electrical energy from Iran, by a U.S.-issued sanctions waiver.
“Today’s designations underscore that the United States will not tolerate profiteering by malign Iranian actors from transactions that take place under the sanctions waiver, and we will remain focused on sanctioning those who do so for the benefit of the IRGC-QF or other designated terrorist groups,” mentioned Ortagus.
Amongst listed corporations are the Reconstruction Group of the Holy Shrines in Iraq (ROHSI), an IRGC-QF-controlled group primarily based in Iran and the Iraq-based Bahjat al Kawthar Firm for Building and Buying and selling Ltd, also referred to as the Kosar Firm.
“The United States engages regularly with the Iraqi government on energy security, and we support measures that reduce Iraq’s energy dependence on Iran,” learn the assertion.
