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The United States has imposed more sanctions on Iran. The country was allegedly involved in providing millions of barrels of oil and major funding to the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. The new sanctions were announced on Tuesday in a conference call between reporters and senior Trump administration officials. Nine targets in a network of Iranian, Russian, and Syrian actors were an expansion of sanctions to maximize the costs to Iran. The U.S Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin said that today we are acting against a complex scheme Iran and Russia have used to bolster the Assad regime and generate funds for Iranian malign activity.

The scheme detailed by the Treasury Department alleges that the Central Bank of Iran helped Syria pay for Russian oil by sending payments to Russian firms through an Iranian company. In order to facilitate oil shipments, Russia coordinates the shipment of oil to Syria using vessels that allegedly switch off their tracking devices in the process to avoid detection. Among those targeted are Syrian national Mohammad Amer Alchwiki and his Russia-based company, Global Vision Group, the Treasury Department said.

Other targets include the Syrian national Hajji Abd Al-Nasir, Lebanon national Muhammad Qasim Al-Bazzal and Russian national Andrey Dogaev as well as Iranian nationals Rasoul Sajjad and Hossein Yaghoubi Miab. State-owned Russian company Promsyrioimport, a subsidiary of the Russian Ministry of Energy, was also sanctioned along with Mir Business Bank and Iran-based Tadbir Kish Medical and Pharmaceutical Company. Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said that the Iranian regime continues to prioritize spending money on fomenting terror over supporting its own people.