In response to continuing violence by the Assad regime against its citizens, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, designated on July 21 eight individuals and seven entities for providing support or services to the Government of Syria, aiding Syria’s weapons of mass destruction program, and/or supporting designated individuals and entities.
Any property or interests in property of the designated persons in the possession or control of U.S. persons or within the United States must be blocked. Additionally, transactions by U.S. persons involving the designated persons are generally prohibited.
OFAC designated Yusuf Arbash and Nabil Tizini for materially assisting, sponsoring, or providing financial, material or technological support for, or goods in services in support of, and acting for or on behalf of, Hesco Engineering and Construction Ltd (Hesco), a designated Syrian engineering and construction company.
OFAC also designated Yona Star International which has long acted as a shipping agent for the Syrian Air Force, as well as other designated Government of Syria entities. Salah Habib, who was also sanctioned, manages Yona Star and serves as the company’s owner and CEO, is a key figure in a network of intermediary and logistics firms based in the UAE that have shipped sensitive merchandise and war materials to Syria.
OFAC sanctioned T-Rubber, an entity which supplied aircraft tires to the Syrian Ministry of Defense and Syrian Air Force and its sales manager Jonha Lang; Atiya Khuri and Moneta Transfer & Exchange for materially assisting, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of the Government of Syria.
Aous Ali, a Syrian businessman who has supported the Government of Syria through his international business contacts, was also designated along with Imad Khuri; E.K.-Ultra Financial Group Limited.
The Mahrous Group, Iyad Mahrous, and Mahrous Trading FZE were designated for, among other crimes, acting or purporting to act for or on behalf of SSRC, which is the Syrian government agency responsible for developing and producing non-conventional weapons and the missiles needed to deliver them.
“From expanding its weapons of mass destruction program to inflicting horrific violence upon the Syrian people, the Assad regime relentlessly engages in destabilizing behavior,” said Adam J. Szubin, Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “Treasury will continue to act against those responsible for fueling the Assad regime’s repressive actions and dangerous weapons proliferation.”
