US sanctions Iran's central bank, development fund

WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (KUNA) -- The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action Friday against the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), the National Development Fund (NDF), and Etemad Tejarate Pars Co. "under its counterterrorism authority." The CBI has provided "billions of dollars to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), its Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah," according to a statement by the Department.
The NDF - Iran's sovereign wealth fund whose board of trustees includes Iran's president, oil minister, and CBI governor, "has been a major source of foreign currency and funding for the IRGC-QF and Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL)," it noted.
Etemad Tejarate Pars, also designated today, "is an Iran-based company that is used to conceal financial transfers for MODAFL's military purchases, including funds originating from the NDF," the statement added.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in this regard, "Iran's brazen attack against Saudi Arabia is unacceptable." He stressed that Treasury's action "targets a crucial funding mechanism that the Iranian regime uses to support its terrorist network, including the Qods Force, Hezbollah and other militants that spread terror and destabilize the region." "The United States will continue its maximum pressure campaign against Iran's repressive regime, which attempts to achieve its revolutionary agenda through regional aggression while squandering the country's oil proceeds," he affirmed.
The CBI and the NDF "were ostensibly intended to safeguard the welfare of the Iranian people, but have been used instead by this corrupt regime to move Iran's foreign currency reserves for terrorist proxies," he added. (pickup previous) si.gb