Iran’s military drone manufacturer has procured “thousands of aerospace components” from a Chinese company that routed the transactions through a Hong Kong-based front company. Treasury Department officials unveiled sanctions on the supply chain as an exercise in enforcing the existing sanctions on the Iranian company, but the punitive measure raises the curtain on China’s sidelong support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“These multi-jurisdictional illicit finance systems provide sanctioned Iranian entities access to the international financial system and enable them to obfuscate their trade with foreign customers,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday. “Iranian currency exchange houses create front companies abroad to enable trade on behalf of their Iranian clients and help them evade U.S. sanctions.
The Axis of Evil is back!