On January 31, 2024, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the designation of three entities and one individual who are alleged members of a network that provides critical financial support to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (“IRGC-QF”) and Hizballah. According to OFAC, the designees are companies located in Lebanon and Türkiye that have become a key source of funding for these and other terrorist groups in the region. The designated members have allegedly generated hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of revenue from selling Iranian commodities to support terrorist operations. Among the designees is Türkiye-based Mira Ihracat Ithalat Petrol and its owner Ibrahim Talal al-Uwayr that allegedly purchased, transported and sold Iranian commodities internationally at the direction of Ali Qasir, Muhammad Qasir and Muhammad Amir Alchwiki, three US-designated Hizballah financial officials. Muhammad Qasir and Alchwiki were designated by the US in 2018, and Ali Qasir in 2019 and 2021, under the counterterrorism authority in Executive Order 13224, as amended, for acting on behalf of Hizballah, an IRGC-QF official, or for providing financial or material support to Hizballah and the IRGC-QF.
The new designations were imposed pursuant to EO 13224, as amended. As a result of these designations, all property and interests in property of the designated person within the United States or within the possession or control of a US person are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions involving a designated person. Entities owned 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked.