EXCLUSIVE: Treasury Department Sanctions Groups For Supporting Iranian Drone Program

WASHINGTON—The Treasury Department is sanctioning entities that support Iran’s military drone program, The Daily Wire can first report.

The department sanctioned one individual and five entities based in Iran, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China for buying technology from Iran’s Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company, a state-owned subsidiary of Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics.

The Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics manufactures Iran’s military aircraft and drones used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The move builds on President Donald Trump’s memorandum on national security directing that Iran can be denied asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities and that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps can be disrupted and degraded.

“Iran continues to pursue the development of asymmetric weapons capabilities, including unmanned aerial vehicles, to carry out attacks on the United States, our service members and our partners and allies in the region,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley said in a statement on Thursday.

“We will continue to put America first by disrupting Tehran’s ability to further its destabilizing agenda that undermines the stability of the region and threatens the safety of the American people,” Hurley added.

All property and interests in property that belong to the sanctioned individuals and are locate din the U.S. are now blocked and must be reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and any entities owned by the blocked individuals are also blocked.

“Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of blocked persons,” Treasury explained in a release.

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