US sanctions two more vessels allegedly linked to Iran
Washington has added two new tanker vessels to its sanctions list for allegedly funding the Iran-backed Houthi militia.
PHOTO: The flags of the US and Iran against the background of the blue sky. Getty Images
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned two more oil tankers: the Panama-flagged Eternal Fortune, owned by Hong Kong-registered Hongkong Unitop Group, and the Palau-flagged Reneez, owned and managed by Marshall Islands-based Reneez Shipping Limited.
The two vessels have been shipping commodities on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), which allegedly backs the Houthi militia’s financial facilitator Sa’id al-Jamal, OFAC claimed.
Reneez shipped “tens of thousands of metric tons of Iranian commodities” under false cargo documents “to mask the Iran-origin cargo onboard and to obfuscate its ties to Iran and al-Jamal’s network,” OFAC said.
Panama-flagged tanker vessel Eternal Fortune emitted a falsified Automatic Identification System (AIS) while receiving a ship-to-ship (STS) transfer of Iranian commodities from another Panama-flagged vessel already under sanction since 27 February – the Artura.
“The IRGC-QF and the Houthis continue to rely on the illicit sale of commodities to finance their attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,” said undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian E. Nelson.
The OFAC also sanctioned several Iran-linked vessels and personnel in the past, including Mohammad Reza Falahzadeh, the deputy commander of the IRGC-QF and a Houthi member, for supporting the group’s persistent insurgency in the Red Sea.
Since mid-November 2023, the Yemeni militant group has been attacking commercial vessels in the Suez Canal trade route and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait as a form of retaliation against Israel's rejection of a ceasefire in Gaza. The ongoing tensions have forced several shipping companies to re-route vessels via the Cape of Good Hope and have put some upward pressure on the price of Brent crude.
By Aparupa Mazumder
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