Trump Admin Places Sanctions on Iran Oil Minister

By Shaun Tandon

President Donald Trump's administration on Monday slapped fresh sanctions on Iran's oil sector including over sales to Syria and Venezuela, reducing Joe Biden's room for maneuver if he wins next week's election.

The Trump administration has since 2018 enforced sweeping sanctions aimed at ending all of Iran's key oil exports, seeking to choke off all cash sources for the regional nemesis of US allies Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Under the new measures, the administration designated the National Iranian Oil Company, Iran's petroleum ministry and the National Iranian Tanker Company under a counterterrorism authority, raising the bar for any future administration to reverse course.

The Treasury Department issued the sanctions by linking the three entities to the Revolutionary Guards' elite Qods Force, which was earlier designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and whose commander, Qasem Soleimani, was killed in a US attack at Baghdad airport in January.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the sanctions should send a warning to "the few remaining buyers of Iranian crude oil."

"These designations are an important step in the maximum pressure campaign to limit the Iranian regime's ability to threaten its neighbors and destabilize the Middle East," Pompeo said in a statement.

'Sanction Addict'?

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh denounced the sanctions as a "passive reaction to the failure of Washington's policy of reducing (Iran's) crude oil exports to zero."

"I have no assets outside of Iran to be subject to the sanctions. I would sacrifice my life, belongings and reputation for Iran," Zanganeh, who was also targeted personally, wrote on Twitter.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the United States a "#SanctionAddict," tweeting, "Kick the habit."

If Trump loses the November 3 election, the sanctions could be among his last volleys against Iran's leaders.

Biden, who leads in polls ahead of next Tuesday's election, favors diplomacy with Iran and backed an accord negotiated by previous president Barack Obama under which Tehran sharply curtailed nuclear work in exchange for promises of sanctions relief.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a group close to the Trump administration which presses for a hard line against Tehran, said that any administration would face a "significant" burden in clearing Iran over the oil sales in question.

“It's likely that the impact of these penalties, even this late in the game, could outlive the politics of 2020," he said.

The Treasury Department said that a network backed by the Qods Force shipped more than one dozen tankers of oil in spring 2019—mostly to Syria, where Iran is a top backer of President Bashar al-Assad as he emerges from a brutal civil war.

Separate from the terrorism designations, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a British-based Iranian businessman, Mahmoud Madanipour, and related companies for transactions with Venezuela.

The Treasury Department accused him of arranging the shipment of tens of thousands of metric tons of gasoline to Venezuela, where Trump has been trying unsuccessfully to depose the leftist leader, Nicolas Maduro, who has recently stepped up economic ties with Iran.

Earlier this month, the administration took another major step to cripple the Iranian economy by imposing sanctions on the nation's banks—making most transactions with the outside world difficult.

The measures alarmed European allies of the United States which warn of dire consequences even to humanitarian trade, although the Trump administration insists it is not targeting food or medicine.

Photo: IRNA

Swiss Humanitarian Channel to Iran Takes Effect

A new Swiss payment mechanism allowing food, medicine and other humanitarian aid to be sent to Iran without stumbling over US sanctions has officially taken effect, Bern said Thursday.

The system was created to allow Swiss companies in the food, pharmaceutical and medical sectors to make aid shipments to Iran without drawing the wrath of Washington for breaching a vast range of sanctions against the Islamic country.

"The Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), a payment mechanism to enable humanitarian goods to be delivered to Iran, came into effect on 27 February," the Swiss economic affairs ministry (SECO) said in a statement.

Iran has been facing severe medical shortages since the US pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions on the country in 2018.

Washington had exempted humanitarian goods, especially medicines and medical equipment from its punitive measures.

But international purchases of such supplies are forestalled by banks being wary of conducting any business with Iran, for fear of falling foul of sanctions themselves.

This has sent medicine prices in Iran soaring and has had severe consequences, especially for people suffering from rare or special diseases that require imported medication.

An Iranian representative, Farhad Memelohi, for instance told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva Thursday that "at least 15 Iranian children with epidermolysis bullosa (EB) had died due to the lack of medication and equipment, resulting from US sanctions."

He said the Swedish pharmaceutical company supplying protective bandages for patients who suffer from the genetic condition that results in easy and dangerous blistering of the skin, "halted their supplies due to the restrictions."

The new coronavirus epidemic, which has hit Iran particularly hard, has put further pressure on the health system and there is a shortage of face masks.

SECO said Swiss authorities had been working "intensively" since late 2018 to implement a humanitarian payment mechanism, hailing that the SHTA agreement had finally taken effect.

"In this way, Switzerland is helping to supply the Iranian population with agricultural commodities, food, medicines and medical equipment ... in keeping with Switzerland's humanitarian tradition," it said.

Under the agreement, the US Treasury Department will provide involved Swiss banks and companies "with the necessary assurances that financial transactions can be processed in accordance with US legislation."

In return, the exporters and banks will provide SECO with "detailed information about their business activities and business partners in Iran and the transactions they carry out," the statement said.

Swiss authorities will then make that information available to their US counterparts, and they will work together to ensure "increased due diligence" regarding the transactions, it added.

A pilot transaction was conducted last month after the Swiss government approved the agreement in principle, allowing for an initial payment for the shipment of cancer drugs and medicines required for organ transplants to Iran.

Photo: Fars

Trump’s Top Sanctions Official Departing for Private Sector

By Saleha Mohsin

The U.S. Treasury Department’s top sanctions official, Sigal Mandelker, plans to leave the Trump administration after helping to increase the pace of economic penalties against American adversaries.

Mandelker, who joined the Treasury Department in June 2017, has helped lead new sanctions on countries including North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, and Iran. She plans to take a job in the private sector.

She moved to Washington from New York to work in the Trump administration.

The Wall Street Journal first reported her plans for departure, citing Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Mandelker.

“She is a fierce advocate for effectively leveraging our powerful economic tools to make an impact for a safer world,” Mnuchin said in a statement. “Sigal’s steadfast devotion to mission will be missed, as she is truly a unique talent.”

Mandelker plans to depart in coming weeks and will leave Mnuchin with one of three undersecretary jobs filled.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Justin Muzinich will take Mandelker’s portfolio after she departs in the next few weeks, a Treasury spokesman said. Muzinich also oversees the domestic finance unit, leaving two of the agency’s three offices under his purview while the undersecretary seats remain open.

Mnuchin has struggled to fill top jobs at the department since the start of the Trump administration. The Treasury chief hasn’t replaced Eli Miller, who left as chief of staff in April, or Craig Phillips, who served as a counselor leading the domestic finance unit until May.

Photo: Bloomberg

US Sanctions Chinese Oil trader for Violating Iran Restrictions: Pompeo

"As part of that maximum pressure campaign, I am announcing that the United States is imposing sanctions on the Chinese entity Zhuhai Zhenrong and its chief executive Youmin Li," Pompeo said in a speech.

“They violated US law by accepting crude oil," he said.

The announcement was the latest step by Washington to ratchet up economic pressure on Tehran over its alleged military activities in the Middle East and its nuclear program by taking aim at business partners.

"We've said all along that any sanction will indeed be enforced. We can't tolerate more money going to ayatollahs, putting American soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, putting their lives at risk. It's too important."

Zhuhai Zhenrong along with Chinese state refiner Sinopec are responsible for nearly all the Iranian crude that China imports.

Bloomberg reported that China took in about 12 million tonnes of Iranian crude in the first five months of this year.

It said that some of that crude is being held in "bonded storage" and not passing through Chinese customs, possibly to avoid the application of

Photo: President.ir

US Hits Iran 'Nuclear Enrichment Network' with Sanctions

The US Treasury named a group of companies in Iran, Belgium and China to its sanctions blacklist Thursday for acting as a supply network for Tehran's nuclear enrichment program.

The companies served as a procurement network for Iran's Centrifuge Technology Company (TESA), which produces enrichment centrifuges for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), the Treasury said.

The network was led by Iranian firm Bakhtar Raad Sepahan and its overseas affiliates. It also included a Chinese firm, Henan Jiayuan Aluminum Industry Company, which was also sanctioned.

Other sanctioned entities are front companies based in China and Belgium, the Treasury said.

"Treasury is taking action to shut down an Iranian nuclear procurement network that leverages Chinese- and Belgium-based front companies to acquire critical nuclear materials and benefit the regime's malign ambitions," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement.

“Iran cannot claim benign intent on the world stage while it purchases and stockpiles products for centrifuges."

The sanctions were announced ten days after AEOI said its resumed enrichment operations had surpassed limits placed by the 2015 nuclear deal, a deliberate move to press other parties into keeping their side of the bargain.

US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal between Iran and six world powers in May 2018 and has since reimposed sanctions on many sectors including the crucial oil and financial industries.

Iran demanded the other parties—France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia—take steps to guarantee the economic benefits Iran was promised for the drastic limitations imposed on its nuclear program.

Trump warned last week that sanctions against Iran would be "increased substantially" after Tehran surpassed the enrichment cap in the 2015 deal.

Photo: Wikicommons

Mnuchin Warns Europe Not to Breach U.S. Sanctions on Iran

By Saleha Mohsin

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made clear that participating in the U.S. financial system means abiding by its sanctions amid a European effort to sidestep American economic pressure on Iran to continue trade.

Germany, France and the U.K. created a trade vehicle known as INSTEX in January to allow companies to do some trade with Iran without the use of U.S. dollars or American banks—thus allowing them to get around wide-ranging American sanctions that were imposed after the Trump administration abandoned the 2015 Iran nuclear deal last year.

“We’ve been very clear that we expect U.S. sanctions to be adhered to,” Mnuchin said in response to questions from reporters on Thursday in France where he met with Group of Seven counterparts. “Whether it’s Iran or anyone else, if people want to participate in the dollar system people will be obligated to follow the U.S. sanctions.”

He said that INSTEX should be “careful on diligence.”

Treasury’s top sanctions official, Sigal Mandelker, sent a letter in May warning European allies not to violate sanctions through Instex. Mnuchin confirmed that a letter was sent.

European countries broadly opposed Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear accord but have struggled to deliver the economic benefits Iran expected from the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, since the U.S. quit. In the meantime, U.S. sanctions have delivered a blow to Iran’s economy, fueling inflation, reducing oil revenue and pressuring President Hassan Rouhani’s government. INSTEX was supposed to help address that, but so far it has largely failed to get up and running.

Frustrated at the U.S. withdrawal and stalled European efforts, Iran has already breached some of the limits on its nuclear program imposed under the deal, and has warned European governments that it will give up on the accord entirely unless they can find some way to work around the U.S. sanctions.

Photo: White House

Trump Sanctions Iran's Supreme Leader in Provocative Move

By Saleha Mohsin and Shannon Pettypiece

President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and eight senior military commanders, a provocative step designed to increase pressure on the Islamic Republic.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that the penalties would deny Khamenei and his office access to financial resources.

“The supreme leader of Iran is the one who ultimately is responsible for the hostile conduct of the regime,” Trump said.

Trump last week abruptly canceled planned air strikes against Iran for shooting down a U.S. Navy drone on Thursday. The administration also blames Iran for recent attacks on two oil tankers near the Persian Gulf, though Iran denies it.

The penalties won’t have a significant impact on a country that’s already in recession and facing heavy sanctions from the U.S. Still, the new restrictions serve as symbolic reprimand for the attacks, according to former Treasury officials.

‘Annoy the Iranians’

“It will have an effect because it will annoy the Iranians and make negotiations hard to pull off if the supreme leader is sanctioned,” said Brian O’Toole, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who previously worked in the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions unit.

The U.S. already has sanctioned more than 80% of Iran’s economy, according to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. He’s en route to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to rally a front against Iran.

Khamenei, who was initially elected president of the nascent republic in 1981, has “possessions” worth an estimated at $200 billion, according to a Facebook post by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in April. He is backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and has survived an assassination attempt and frontline combat.

The U.S. Treasury Department said Monday those sanctioned also include eight officials of the Guard Corps who supervised “malicious regional activities,” including its ballistic missile program and “harassment and sabotage” of commercial ships in international waters.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at a news conference in Washington that some of the sanctions had been “in the works” and others were a result of “recent activities.” He said sanctions against the Islamic Republic have been effective in cutting off funds to the military and “locking up” the Iranian economy, and that the new penalties would be effective as well.

Mnuchin said the U.S. will impose financial restrictions on Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif “later this week.”

Trump told reporters Monday that, “A lot of restraint has been shown by us, a lot of restraint—and that doesn’t mean we are going to show it in the future, but I thought that we want to give this a chance,” he said.

Any financial institution that knowingly assists with a financial transaction for those who were sanctioned could be cut off from the U.S. financial system, according to the Treasury.

Trump’s Warning

Trump had warned of additional sanctions on Saturday. At the same time, he said an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he thinks Iranian leaders want to negotiate and he’s willing to talk with no preconditions except that the outcome must be Iran acquiring no nuclear weapons. Trump said the proposed discussions have “nothing to do with oil.”

Even before the new penalties were announced, the U.S. had applied sanctions to nearly 1,000 Iranian entities, including banks, individuals, ships and aircraft. In May, the Trump administration prohibited the purchase of Iranian iron, steel, aluminum and copper.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry had said new penalties won’t force the country to negotiate or capitulate.

“Are there any other sanctions left for the U.S. to impose on Iran?” ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Monday prior to Trump’s announcement, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. The Trump administration “knows full well that if pressure and sanctions were the answer, they would have yielded results much earlier.”

Tensions have spiked in the Gulf since May, when the Trump administration revoked waivers on the import of Iranian oil, squeezing its economy a year after the U.S. walked away from the landmark 2015 deal meant to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapon. Since then, a spate of attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz shipping choke point have raised the specter of war and pushed up oil prices. The U.S. has blamed the attacks on Tehran, which has denied any wrongdoing.

On Monday, Trump questioned in comments on Twitter why the U.S. was protecting the shipping route on behalf of other countries.

Photo: IRNA

UniCredit Said Near $900 Million Sanctions Accord With U.S.

UniCredit SpA is nearing an agreement with US authorities over allegations that the bank provided dollar-clearing services to Iranian clients in violation of US sanctions, people with the knowledge of the matter said. The deal would cost the Italian lender about USD 900 million but spare it from criminal prosecution, the people said.

A settlement of that size would be one of the largest for violations of U.S. sanctions laws, exceeded only by agreements reached with Societe Generale SA, Commerzbank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc and BNP Paribas SA. Among them, only BNP Paribas admitted guilt. The others entered into deferred-prosecution agreements.

“This is very positive for UniCredit because it eliminates one of the remaining pending risks for the bank,” said Fidentiis Equities analyst Fabrizio Bernardi. “This can improve UniCredit’s valuation for the future.

Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier inherited the case from previous management when he took the who took the helm in July 2016. He announced provisions for related to the probe in November and said he didn’t expect it to have a material impact on the bank’s accounts.

A deal is expected in the coming weeks, the people said. It would resolve investigations of UniCredit by the U.S. Justice Department, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Federal Reserve, the Manhattan district attorney’s office and New York’s Department of Financial Services.

Representatives from those offices declined to comment or didn’t immediately respond to messages. A UniCredit spokesman declined to comment.

UniCredit rose as much as 2.3 percent in Milan trading and was priced at 12.10 euros as of 9:14 a.m. The stock has gained 21 percent this year, boosting the company’s market value to about 26 billion euros.

UniCredit’s German unit, HypoVereinsbank, was subpoenaed in March 2011 by the New York district attorney’s office over transactions with certain Iranian entities that were subject to U.S. sanctions. The lender set aside 741 million euros (USD 831 million) in provisions and charges, including funds to eventually settle the allegations in the third quarter. Additional funds were provisioned by HVB in the first half, according to the unit’s financial report.

UniCredit has declined to disclose the total amount of provisioning related to the sanctions. The bank’s provisions for the settlement are expected to fully cover the fine, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

Italy’s biggest bank, UniCredit is one of several European financial institutions settling cases for alleged sanctions-busting. Fifteen European banks have paid more than USD 18.5 billion over the last 15 years for violating U.S. sanctions on certain countries, particularly Iran. BNP Paribas’ USD 18.97 billion penalty in 2014 was by far the largest.

Standard Chartered Plc may also be getting close to settling allegations that it violated Iran sanctions. On Monday, it agreed to a short extension of its non-prosecution agreement with supervising authorities to “allow for additional time to resolve the outstanding investigation into our historical U.S. sanctions compliance.”

The UniCredit settlement would be the second by an Italian bank. Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, the country’s second-biggest bank, agreed to pay USD 235 million in December 2016 to resolve a New York regulator’s allegations that it flouted money-laundering controls for a decade.

Photo Credit: Bloomberg

U.S. Sanctions Two Dozen People, Entities Over Ties to Iran

The US Treasury Department sanctioned 25 individuals and entities it accused of transferring more than USD 1 billion dollars and euros to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and Iran’s defense ministry.

Some of the people and entities obtained millions of dollars worth of vehicles for the defense ministry, the Treasury Department said in a statement Tuesday.

The Treasury said the penalties expose “an extensive sanctions evasion network established by the Iranian regime, which it increasingly relies on as the United States’ maximum pressure campaign severely constricts the regime’s sources of revenue.”

Those sanctioned included Ansar Bank Brokerage Company, the Treasury said.

“This once again exposes to the international community the dangerous risks of operating in an Iranian economy that is deliberately opaque,” Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said in a statement.

In separate sanctions announced last week, the U.S. sanctioned 14 individuals and 17 entities tied to Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, “whose key personnel played a central role in the Iranian regime’s past nuclear weapons effort,” the Treasury said in a statement.

Photo Credit: Bloomberg

Trump's Sanctions Staff Defects as U.S. Expands Economic War

The U.S. office in charge of financial sanctions, President Donald Trump’s favorite weapon against American adversaries, risks being hobbled by staff departures due to management turmoil and growing private-sector demand for its expertise.

Trump has nearly doubled the number of people and companies under U.S. sanctions. But in the last two years, about 20 staff have left the office in charge of implementing and enforcing sanctions, the Office of Foreign Assets Control—about 10 percent of its workforce.

The sanctions office, part of a Treasury division overseen by Sigal Mandelker, has the power to freeze billions of dollars in assets, blacklist individuals and companies from participating in the U.S. economy and punish violations. The Trump administration has turned to sanctions to pressure countries including North Korea, Venezuela and Turkey.

The increased tempo and sophistication of the work of the sanctions office, known as OFAC, has contributed to attrition. Washington law firms, Wall Street banks and other companies have sought to hire Treasury’s sanctions officials to help them translate the agency’s decisions, which can have sweeping effects on financial markets.

But some who have left also blame Mandelker, 47, the undersecretary for Treasury’s Terrorism and Financial Intelligence unit, or TFI, which is composed of four offices, including OFAC.

While they say Mandelker is smart and well-versed, people familiar with her work also call her disorganized, indecisive and short-tempered and say she has embroiled her staff in feuds with a deputy, Marshall Billingslea.

Mandelker’s poor leadership has hurt morale across the units she oversees, according to more than 20 people familiar with the inner workings of her department, all of whom asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Attrition Risks

The Treasury Department made Secretary Steven Mnuchin available for an interview after it was asked for comment from Mandelker. He expressed confidence in her work and said criticism of her is “completely inconsistent” with the operations of her division.

“Sigal and I have tremendous confidence in the career staff and their opinions,” he said. Mnuchin said attrition rates are lower at TFI than other parts of Treasury, though the department declined to provide numbers.

Mandelker said in written testimony for a House hearing last week that she was “humbled to supervise TFI’s career professionals who work day-in and day-out, often behind the scenes, to keep America safe.” She called OFAC the “beating heart of U.S. sanctions.”

Mnuchin has taken an increased interest in TFI’s work compared to his predecessors, often saying that he spends half his time on sanctions. Some of the people who blame Mandelker or Billingslea for the attrition say Mnuchin’s involvement in the office helps speed decisions, and that the secretary was more willing to hear and follow advice from civil servants than Mandelker.

“Given the activity and the impact on the private sector both here and abroad I can see why companies would want to hire experts to deal with this,” Mnuchin said.

It’s difficult to pinpoint risks from staff attrition at TFI, but one vulnerability could be legal. People under U.S. sanctions sometimes sue the government for relief. Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who was sanctioned last year in response to Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election, filed a lawsuit last week claiming $7.5 billion in losses related to the U.S. penalties.

Deripaska’s lawsuit names OFAC’s current director, Andrea Gacki, as a defendant.

OFAC has never lost such a case, but if it does, it “could tie OFAC’s hands in actions in the future, while also making a mess of economies facing sanctions,” said Erich Ferrari, who founded Ferrari & Associates in Washington and helps people get removed from U.S. sanctions.

“Sanctions are hard. It takes a long time to really understand how the tool can be effective and what the legal bounds are,” said Ferrari, one of the lawyers representing Deripaska. “When you lose all of that institutional knowledge, you could end up getting sued for not understanding which actions may not be in accordance with the law.”

Sanctions Power

OFAC’s work is as enigmatic as it is powerful. One day in February, trading of some Venezuelan debt came to a standstill after Treasury updated its sanctions guidelines on transactions tied to Maduro’s regime. OFAC’s complex instructions were interpreted as forbidding most transactions. Treasury clarified its guidance a week later.

OFAC also has the ability to punish anyone who violates its financial restrictions, whether it’s BNP Paribas, one of the world’s largest banks, which agreed to pay a $9 billion fine in 2014, or a beauty company using North Korean materials to make false eyelashes.

Recent departures from TFI include Sarah Runge, who left after about 10 years to lead regulatory strategy at Credit Suisse Group, Jennifer Fowler, who left after 17 years for Brunswick Group in Washington and Heather Epstein, who is now at Barclays Plc. Neither responded messages seeking comment.

The more than 20 people interviewed who blame Mandelker for the departures from TFI said she has ignored the advice of veteran civil servants in the unit, frequently loses her temper and often leaves dozens of employees waiting up to 40 minutes for her to arrive at meetings.

Office Friction

Her clashes with Billingslea, a fellow political appointee who is a subordinate but like Mandelker is Senate-confirmed, have also discomfited some staff, the people said.

Trump has nominated Billingslea to be an assistant secretary at the State Department.

Treasury Department officials asked some of Mandelker’s subordinates and supporters to contact Bloomberg News in her defense, including Isabel Patelunas, an assistant secretary in TFI; Kenneth Blanco, who heads another unit Mandelker oversees called the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network; Paul Ahern, assistant general counsel at Treasury; and others who asked not to be named. They said Mandelker deserves credit for her leadership of a division of Treasury undertaking challenging and high-pressure work.

They said she’s passionate about her work, aggressively advocates for resources and has helped break silos within TFI. Stuart Levey, one of Mandelker’s predecessors who also worked with her during the post-9/11 era at Justice Department, said she operates well under pressure.

“In every administration from Clinton to Bush to Obama to Trump, I saw conflict within the agency because they were incredibly passionate people who cared deeply about the mission,” said John Smith, who worked for Treasury for 11 years and left OFAC as director in May due to personal reasons.

Mandelker has said she takes pride in a career directed at fighting human rights abuses, including in her current role at Treasury. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, she held various positions at the Justice and Homeland Security departments during President George W. Bush’s administration. She was a partner at New York law firm Proskauer Rose LLP before she joined the Trump administration.

The departures at TFI echo instability earlier in Trump’s administration at Treasury’s International Affairs unit, led by David Malpass. Following a Bloomberg News report that Malpass’s mismanagement pushed more than 20 civil servants out of the office, Treasury officials started hosting listening sessions, lunches between civil servants and Malpass, and increased transparency into decision-making, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Photo Credit: Bloomberg

US Announces Sanctions on Key Iranian Paramilitary Force

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday slapped sanctions on an Iranian paramilitary group along with a network of businesses that were providing it financing, as part of Washington's campaign of maximum economic pressure against Tehran.

In announcing the sanctions, Treasury said a network of more than 20 businesses known as the Bonyad Taavon Basij was financing the Basij Resistance Force, a component of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

It also accused the militia of sending child soldiers to Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"The international community must understand that business entanglements with the Bonyad Taavon Basij network and IRGC front companies have real world humanitarian consequences," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The Basij, a paramilitary force formed soon after the 1979 revolution, is one of the Iranian regime's primary enforcers of internal security with branches in every province and city of Iran, according to the US Treasury.

"In addition to its involvement in violent crackdowns and serious human rights abuses in Iran, the Basij recruits and trains fighters ... including Iranian children, who then deploy to Syria to support the brutal Assad regime," it said. 

It added that in addition to Iranians, the militia recruited Afghan immigrants to Iran through coercion, some of whom had fled to Europe as a result, as well as Pakistani nationals.

"Children recruited by Basij have tragically fought and died on the battleground in Syria," a senior administration official told AFP.

The Bonyad Taavon Basij is said to provide the Basij militia social welfare services, including housing and financial support, and manages economic activities by funding small companies.

"Bonyad Taavon Basij has expanded its reach into Iran's economy by establishing several investment firms through its financial and investment offshoot Mehr Eqtesad Bank," the Treasury statement said.

Among the other companies singled out was Iran Tractor Manufacturing Company (ITMC), the largest tractor manufacturer in the Middle East and North Africa which predates the Iranian revolution, that generates millions of dollars in profit for the investment firms that represent the Basij.

Also targeted was Iran's Zinc Mines Development Company, described as the country's "preeminent, multibillion-dollar zinc and lead mining and processing holding company."

Photo Credit: Leader.ir