US Sanctions Several Entities In China, UAE, India Over Iran’s Trade
United States Department of the Treasury Seal in Treasury building in Washington, DC
As part of US measures to disrupt Iran’s efforts to evade sanctions, the Treasury Department has levied new sanctions on a series of entities in India, China, and the UAE for their illicit trade.
On Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned an international network of companies involved in the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum products to end users in South and East Asia.
“These entities have played a critical role in concealing the origin of the Iranian shipments and enabling two sanctioned Iranian brokers, Triliance Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (Triliance) and Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial Co. (PGPICC), to transfer funds and ship Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals to buyers in Asia,” the Treasury said.
In addition to the measures by the Treasury, the Department of State designated two China-based entities, namely Zhonggu Storage and Transportation Co. Ltd. and WS Shipping Co. Ltd., for their involvement in Iran’s petrochemical trade.
Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said, “The United States is committed to severely restricting Iran’s illicit oil and petrochemical sales. So long as Iran refuses a mutual return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the United States will continue to enforce its sanctions on the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products.”
The Norwegian police clashed with protesters who were attempting to enter Iran’s embassy in Oslo on Thursday, amid worldwide rallies against the embassies of the Islamic Republic.
According to the police, at least two people sustained light injuries during the angry demonstration. The police added that “considerable resources" were deployed, and the situation was brought under control.
Also on Thursday, Taliban forces used gunfire to disperse a women's rally in the Afghan capital Kabul in support of the protests in Iran over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody of the hijab police for "inappropriate clothing.”
Chanting the same "Women, life, freedom" mantra used in Iran, dozens of Afghan women protested in front of the Iranian embassy before Taliban forces fired into the air. Women in headscarves carried banners that read, "Iran has risen, now it's our turn!" and "From Kabul to Iran, say no to dictatorship!"
An organizer said that the rally was staged "to show support and solidarity with the people of Iran and the women victims of the Taliban in Afghanistan".
Since the Iranians have risen up against the Islamic Republic following her death, protest rallies are being held regularly inside Iran and abroad.
French police used tear gas and employed anti-riot tactics September 25 to prevent protesters from marching on Tehran's embassy in Paris as several hundred expatriates and human rights activists gathered to protest against Iran’s crackdown on demonstrations.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called Thursday on Iranian authorities to immediately end their brutal treatment of protesters and investigate the death of Mahsa Amini.
In a thread of tweets, she said that it has nothing to do with religion or culture if the police beat a woman to death, as it seems to be the case for the young Iranian girl whose death sparked an uprising across Iran.
Condemning the bloody crackdown on popular protests, she said “The clubs and the tear gas are not an expression of power,”
“The violence by the regime in Iran speaks of pure fear,” Baerbock said, noting that nothing scares violent rulers more than a group of women speaking out together.
"We are doing everything within the EU framework to impose sanctions against those responsible for oppressing women in Iran," echoing similar remarks by other European countries about possible sanctions on Iran over the death of the 22-year-old woman and the clampdown on the ensuing protests.
“I summoned the Iranian ambassador and we made it clear in that the Iranian authorities must stop their brutal actions immediately. Not only the death of Jina (Mahsa Amini), but also that of many demonstrators, needs to be clarified,” she said
Iran's state-run newspaper Tehran Times claimed Thursday that four European countries, including Germany and Netherlands, and an Asian state have been involved in inciting "riots" in Iran. It said the German embassy in Tehran has served as a coordinating center for other EU embassies “to fan the flames of the protests.”
The German embassy encouraged members of Mahsa’s family to speak out against the police, it alleged, adding that the embassy promised them that Germany will give them German citizenship, in case they were prosecuted by the Iranian authorities.
Several US senators told Iran International that Washington should stop talks with the Islamic Republic over revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, especially considering the ongoing popular protests.
Democratic Senator from New Jersey Bob Menendez, who is the chairman Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told our correspondent that the United States should get ready for the fall of the regime in Iran, noting that the last time Iranians revolted against the government, the US did not have any plans.
“I hope we'd be ready, and we'd have our contingencies and engagement, because we lost in the Green Revolution, we should be able to be ready for it now,” he said.
Utah’s Republican Senator Mitt Romney also voiced his support for the popular uprising of the Iranians -- triggered by the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini in the hands of hijab police – saying that currently it is not a good idea to be negotiating with Iran on a nuclear deal. “Iran is a bad actor and providing more resources to them and relieving sanctions would be a big mistake.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Alabama’s Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville warned against further nuclear negotiations with Iran while the country is in turmoil. “We don't need to get back to that dialog with Iran. They're obviously having problems over there right now. They need to work out their own problems.”
Calling the Islamic Republic’s authorities “dictators,” he said he is not surprised that “the Iranian regime is clamping down on Iranian protesters.”
Republican Senator from North Carolina Thom Tillis described the Biden administration's plan to go back to negotiating table with Iran as “ill-advised,” underlining that the Islamic Republic is a “state sponsor of terror” that every year “invests hundreds of millions of dollars” to destabilize the Middle East.
He added that it is beyond his comprehension that the Biden administration “thinks it'd be wise to do anything that would bolster that leadership versus stand with the Iranian people who want change.”
Pennsylvania's Senator Pat Toomey, also a Republican, called on the Biden administration to voice very strong, clear support for the protesters, highlighting that they are “only protesting for basic human rights, and they deserve those rights.”
He told our Congressional reporter Arash Alaei that “I don't think we can get a workable nuclear deal with this regime.”
Toomey said he does not have the expertise to make a prediction about the collapse of the regime, adding that “Sadly we know authoritarian regimes are able to retain power for a long period of time even when they're not popular.”
Republican Senator Mike Rounds from South Dakota also urged the administration against negotiating with Iran right now, emphasizing that the Islamic Republic is “a terrorist state.”
He touched upon the suffering of Iranians under the regime, saying, “Once again they're using some of those same tactics against their own people.”
Stressing that the “terrorist” regime in power in Iran is different from the Iranians who are good people themselves, he said that “we're having a difficult time in trying to find common ground with them (the regime). And that hurts our ability to have a good relationship with the people of Iran.”
Chris Van Hollen, Maryland's Democratic senator, also denounced the Islamic Republic's “vicious crackdown” on protesters as a “gross violation of women's rights and human rights,” expressing satisfaction that Washington slapped sanctions on hijab police and some security officials involved in the crackdown on peaceful protesters.
The Treasury Department said last week that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) isdesignating Iran’s Morality Police “for abuse and violence against Iranian women and the violation of the rights of peaceful Iranian protestors.”
However, he said repression is already brutal in Iran without a nuclear deal, “So the idea that entering an agreement would cause the Iranian regime to be more brutal in its crackdown doesn't make sense to me.” “A nuclear armed Iran is worse for the US and our allies than a non-nuclear Iran,” he said, implying support for revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated calls for an impartial investigation over the death of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian woman killed while in custody of police.
The Secretary General in a tweet demanded “a prompt, impartial and effective investigation by an independent competent authority,” as protests raged in Iran for nearly two weeks after Mahsa Amini died in hospital on September 16. Guterres added, “Human rights, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association should be respected.”
It is not clear how many protesters have been killed Iran by security forces, but according to preliminary estimates the number is approaching at least one hundred.
The government has shut down the internet and deployed thousands of armed security forces in the streets of the Capital Tehran on Wednesday.
In a bilateral meeting in New York last week, Guterres had urged Iran’s hard-liner president Ebrahim Raisi that human rights, including freedom of expression and assembly were important, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric told the media.
"We are increasingly concerned about reports of rising fatalities, including women and children, related to the protests," Dujarric said in a statement.
The spokesman said last week that Guterres "calls on the security forces to refrain from using unnecessary or disproportionate force and appeals to all to exercise utmost restraint to avoid further escalation". He had also called for an impartial and effective investigation of Mahsa Amini’s death.
A group of United Nations experts have called on Iran to immediately halt the executions of two women sentenced to death over their support for LGBTQ rights.
In a statement on Wednesday, the rights' experts said, "We strongly condemn the sentencing of Ms. Sedighi-Hamedani and Ms. Choubdar to death and call on authorities to stay their executions and annul their sentences as soon as possible."
"Authorities must ensure the health and well-being of both women, and promptly release them from detention," they said, voicing their concerns that the women may have been arbitrarily detained, ill-treated, and prosecuted on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, "including criminalization of LGBT people whose human rights they were supporting".
Iranian judicial authorities prosecuted Zahra Sedighi-Hamedani (31), known as Sareh, and Elham Choubdar (24) in August and notified them earlier this month that they had been convicted and sentenced to death on charges of "corruption on earth through the promotion of homosexuality." The verdict was issued by the Revolutionary Court of the city of Orumiyeh (Urmia), in West Azarbaijan province.
