The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday imposed sanctions on ten individuals and entities for their role in weapons trades between Iran and Venezuela.
OFAC pointed out that Iran’s ongoing provision of weapons to Caracas constitutes a threat to U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere, stressing that the United States will use all available measures to prevent this trade.
These sanctions are part of President Donald Trump’s February National Security Presidential Memorandum directing the U.S. government to impose maximum pressure on Iran’s Islamic regime, deny it all paths to a nuclear weapon, and countering its malign influence.
Among those sanctioned stands Empresa Aeronautica Nacional SA (EANSA), a Venezuelan company that maintains and oversees the assembly of Iran’s Qods Aviation Industries’ (QAI) Mohajer-series UAVs in Venezuela, contributing to QAI’s sale of millions of dollars’ worth of Mohajer-6 drones to Venezuela.
EANSA’s chairman, Jose Jesus Urdaneta Gonzalez, was also sanctioned for his coordinator role between Iranian and Venezuelan armed forces members for the production of these drones in Venezuela.
“Treasury is holding Iran and Venezuela accountable for their aggressive and reckless proliferation of deadly weapons around the world,” Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley said
“We will continue to take swift action to deprive those who enable Iran’s military-industrial complex access to the U.S. financial system,” he continued.
OFAC detailed that the Iranian Mohajer-series drones maintained by EANSA are rebranded in Venezuela as the “Arpia” or “ANSU-series.” The ANSU-100, OFAC further detailed, is an updated, armed derivative version of a previous model capable of launching Iranian-designed Qaem air-to-ground guided bombs.
Additionally, Tuesday’s sanctions targeted three Iran-based individuals for their efforts to procedure chemicals used for ballistic missiles for Parchin Chemical Industries (PCI), an element of Iran’s Defense Industries Organization.
“Today’s action highlights the importance of the re-imposition of sanctions and other restrictions on Iran pursuant to UN Security Council resolutions. The entities and individuals designated today demonstrate Iran is actively proliferating its combat UAVs and continues to procure missile-related items in violation of UN restrictions,” Thomas Pigott, Principal Deputy spokesman at the U.S. Department of State, said.
“As President Trump has made clear in National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2), the United States will take action to curtail Iran’s ballistic missile program, counter Iran’s development of other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities, deny Iran a nuclear weapon, and deny the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) access to assets and resources that sustain their destabilizing activities,” he continued. “We will not hesitate to hold accountable anyone who supports Tehran’s proliferation activities.”
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