The Office of Foreign Asset Controls of the US Department of the Treasury has designated eight senior Iranian officials and seventeen metals producers, mining companies, vessels and foreign companies involved in the Iranian metals industry.
The sanctioned officials, who include the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security council, the Deputy chief of Staff of the Iranian armed forces, and the head of a major militia of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, have been designated pursuant to Executive Order 13876 as persons appointed to official positions by, or acting on behalf of, the Supreme Leader of Iran, for their involvement and complicity in the ballistic missile strikes conducted by Iran on US installations in Iraq on Tuesday, January 7, 2020.
The designated companies include the thirteen largest steel and iron manufacturers in Iran; Pamchel Trading Beijing Co. Ltd., a Beijing-based trading company that regularly purchases tens of thousands of metric tons of steel from Iran, and sells carbon and cathode blocks for use by the Iran Aluminum Company; Power Anchor Limited, a Seychelles front company that facilitates payments from Iranian steel companies, and; Hongyuan Marine Co. Ltd., the registered owner of Hong Xun, a vessel (also designated) that has transported steel slabs from Iran to China. These entities have been designated pursuant to Executive Order 13871 for having knowingly engaged in the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport or marketing of iron, aluminum, steel or copper products from Iran, or for their ownership or control by a sanctioned entity.
The designations follow the issuance of a new Executive Order, “Imposing Sanctions with Respect to Additional Sectors of Iran.” Pursuant to the designations, all US property of the designated entities and individuals are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from dealing with such property, and could themselves be exposed to sanctions.