The United States has imposed sanctions on several companies and individuals in India and Turkey, accusing them of helping Iran get around sanctions on its oil exports and its airlines.
The US Treasury said on Wednesday, November 4, that the measures target a “wide criminal network” run by Sunil Kumar Sharma and his wife Jaspreet Preeti Shahid, based in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh.
Two more Indian nationals who managed the couple’s businesses, and nine companies linked to Sharma, were also sanctioned.
The Treasury alleges that the couple presented themselves as representatives of the maritime authorities of several countries, including Guyana, Eswatini and Laos, and issued fake flags and certificates. This let sanctioned tankers carrying Iranian oil keep sailing. Among them were ships working for Iran’s military and its allied groups.
The ministry said the fraud had been running since at least 2014. The network used websites built to look like the official ship registration sites of various countries.
Action against a Turkish company
The Treasury also sanctioned a Turkey-based company, Fugo Ground Services.
It accuses the company of providing ground handling and other services to Iranian airlines under US sanctions, among them Iran Airtour and Saha Airlines. Despite the sanctions, those airlines have kept flying to Turkey.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also warned shipping companies of the risk of doing business with vessels using false flags.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington would keep acting against any person or company that helps Tehran.
Assets frozen
Under the new sanctions, any assets the listed people and companies hold in the United States will be frozen, and US citizens are generally barred from doing business with them.
The sanctions are part of the Trump administration’s “Operation Economic Outcast”, which aims to cut off the oil export revenue Iran uses to pay for its war.
The Treasury said last week that the campaign had pushed Iran’s currency, the rial, to a new low and driven inflation in the country to nearly 90 percent.
The new sanctions were announced a day after the Democrats won control of both houses of Congress in the US midterm elections.
Source: Al Jazeera
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report