Thread by @HeshmatAlavi

#BREAKING
U.S. Treasury Dept. sanctions the Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (PGPIC), for providing financial support to Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters (Khatam al-Anbiya), the IRGC's engineering conglomerate.
home.treasury.gov/news/press-rel…

US Treasury designating PGPIC’s vast network of 39 subsidiary petrochemical companies & foreign-based sales agents. PGPIC & its group of subsidiary petrochem companies hold 40% of Iran’s total petrochem production capacity and are responsible for 50% of Iran’s petrochem exports.

“This action is a warning that we will continue to target holding groups and companies in the petrochemical sector and elsewhere that provide financial lifelines to the IRGC," said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

“The IRGC systemically infiltrates critical sectors of the Iranian economy to enrich their coffers, while engaging in a host of other malign activities,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker.

The IRGC and its major holdings, such as the Basij Cooperative Foundation and Khatam al-Anbiya, have a dominant presence in Iran’s commercial and financial sectors, controlling multi-billion dollar businesses and maintaining extensive economic interests in the defense, oil...

The profits from these activities support the IRGC’s full range of nefarious activities, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their means of delivery, support for terrorism, and a variety of human rights abuses, at home and abroad.

In 2018, Iran’s Petroleum Minister awarded the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbiya ten projects in oil & petrochemical industries worth $22 billion, four times the IRGC's official budget.
irannewswire.org/irans-petroche…

A number of entities designated today export products and have known business ties with companies around the globe. International companies that continue to partner with PGPIC and its designated subsidiaries and sales agents will themselves be exposed to U.S. sanctions.

As of Nov 5, 2018, the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport or marketing of petrochemical products from Iran is sanctionable pursuant to EO 13846.

Knowingly providing insurance or re-insurance for the transport of Iranian petroleum & petrochemical products is sanctionable.

Reminder:
Back in July 2018, China decided to procure its petrochemical needs from Saudi Arabia, ending such imports from #Iran.
entekhab.ir/fa/news/419262… …

August 2018
#Iran's regime released a significant portion of its petrochemical currency to inject currency into the country's market.
akairan.com/hm651rsb.%D9%8… …

Tehran is now deprived of this vital source of cash.

#Iran earned $12 billion in 2012 from petrochemical exports.

Workers of the regime's petrochemical industry have a long history of holding strikes & protesting paycheck delays.
(File photos included)

These sanctions will increase pressure targeting the mullahs' apparatus.