News - Middle East: The United States has announced new sanctions targeting non-Iranian entities that it says have helped Iran dodge Washington's sanctions on its oil exports.

The sanctions announced on the US Treasury Department's website on Wednesday covered 22 companies in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey.

The Treasury claimed the companies have facilitated the sale of Iranian oil by being part of a “shadow banking” system run by the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF).

It said the companies receive payments from refineries buying Iranian oil and then move the funds to the accounts of other front companies controlled by the IRGC-QF.

Iran has repeatedly dismissed the significance of US sanctions on its oil exports. Recent estimates suggest the country has been selling oil at levels not seen since Washington imposed the sanctions in 2018 during the first term of the incumbent US President Donald Trump.

The sanctions announced on Wednesday by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) are the first to come after Trump ordered airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites in the midst of an Israeli aggression on Iran that took place last month.

Iran responded to the attacks by targeting a major US military base in Qatar.

The sanctions mark a second such action by OFAC since February 4, when Trump signed a presidential memorandum restoring a campaign of maximum pressure on Iran.

OFAC, which blacklisted the IRGC-QF in 2007, announced sanctions on June 6 on more than 30 individuals and entities it said were related to Iran’s shadow banking infrastructure.

Press TV