Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Ayal Margolin/Flash90
A drone launched by Hezbollah flies over the Israeli border on Sept. 15, 2024
(JNS) — The Biden administration announced that it was imposing sanctions on four companies and three individuals on Wednesday for their role in supporting Iran’s drone and missile programs.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it was imposing sanctions on two companies controlled by Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian arrested in Italy on Tuesday and charged with supplying the guidance systems used in a drone attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. soldiers in January. The department said that it was also slapping a designation on Abedini and Kaveh Merat, who is based in Iran and is the chairman and chief technology officer of the companies.
According to the Treasury Department, Abedini and Merat sold more than 1,000 navigation units to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization, which uses them in kamikaze drones and missiles.
“Iran continues to try to acquire these critical components covertly to facilitate the production of its ballistic missile and UAV weapon systems,” said Bradley Smith, acting under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. “The United States will continue to disrupt Iran’s attempts to provide its deadly weapons to Russia, its terrorist proxies and other destabilizing actors around the globe.”
The U.S. State Department announced additional sanctions on Wednesday on two Iranian companies and an IRGC officer involved in the production of the kamikaze drone system used in the attack on Jordan.
The State Department said Brig. Gen. Sayyed Hosein Majid Mousavi Eftekhari, deputy commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, had “engaged in activities that have materially contributed to Iran’s ballistic missile program.”
It further noted that Iran’s “Shahed drones are also widely used by Russia in Ukraine, including “against civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
