The office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury has designated twenty companies, officials and businessmen pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended, for supporting designated terrorists or acts of terrorism. According to OFAC, the designated persons, based in Iraq and Iran, have provided support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization in April 2019, or have aided Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and have helped money laundering through front companies in Iraq, selling Iranian oil to Syria, smuggling weapons to Iraq and Yemen, and used funds intended for religious institutions to supplement the IRGC-QF’s budget.
Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin noted when announcing the designations, that the United States maintains broad exceptions and authorizations for humanitarian aid to the people of Iran in the battle against the novel coronavirus. Information about these provisions is available here.
Following these sanctions, US property of the designated persons is blocked, and dealings by US persons involving such property are generally prohibited. Furthermore, persons who transact with the designated persons may themselves be exposed to sanctions, and foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate significant transactions for the designated persons could be subject to US correspondent account or payable-through account sanctions.