“Program for the production of drones” –

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has announced new sanctions against 16 people and ten legal entities linked to Tehran’s program for the production of drones, the Ministry of Defense and the steel and steel sectors. automotive in Iran, in response to the weekend attack on Israel. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement that the measure, taken in coordination with the United Kingdom, is part of the work that Washington is carrying out to «degrade and hinder Iran’s destabilizing activities, including the program for the production of drones and the financing of international terrorism”. Specifically, the measures affected the Mado Company, specialized in the production of engines for remotely piloted aircraft, together with the CEO, Mohammad Sadegh Abutalebi, and one of the board members, Ali Ashgar Abutalebi; the Aseman Pishraneh company, also specialized in the production of drone engines, together with the general director, Abi Habibi Najafi.

The sanctions are also aimed at several officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the so-called Pasdaran, involved in the production, development and supply of drones to pro-Iranian militias active in Yemen, Iraq and Syria: among these are Abbas Sartaji, Mehdi Ghaffari Naghneh, Hasan Arambunezhad; Hadi Jamshidi Zavaraki; Reza Nahar Dani and Abolfazl Ramazanzadeh Moshkani. The measures also affected some managers and employees of the Kipas company (already sanctioned by the United States in 2021): Ali Reza Nurian Ramsheh, Mohsen Sayyadi Turanlu, Mohammad Sadegh Fatehi, Hamid Hajji Ebrahimi Forushani, Ali Ashgar Al-Taf and Esmail Azizkhani. The move also includes Fateh Aseman Sharif Company, along with its CEO, Majid Dehghan.

In the steel sector, the sanctions are aimed at several legal entities associated with the Iranian steel producer KSC, already sanctioned in 2020. Among these are the Emirati Psi DMCC; Kara Industrial Trading and Good Run Limited, registered in Europe; Magellanic Phoenix Marine and Trading Limited, based in Hong Kong; and the Turkish Hsf Dis Ticaret Limited Sirketi. In the automotive sector, the provision affected the Bahman Diesel company, a subsidiary of the Bahman group which the USA has already sanctioned previously; and the Iran Docharkh company, also a subsidiary of the group together with Iran Chassis Manufacturing.