By Kayhan Life Staff
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has removed three Iranians from its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list.
In September 2020, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration placed Behzad Daniel Ferdows and Mehrzad Daniel Ferdows, two Iranian-German nationals, and Mohammad Reza Dezfulian on its SDN list for violating sanctions against Iran.
All three men are executives at the Tehran-based Mammut Diesel Company and Mammut Industrial Complex. They are well known in Iran as the principal importers of heavy machinery and truck trailers.
Three other former Iranian officials were removed from the SDN list by the U.S. administration in June.
A notice by the U.S. Department of Treasury on Sept. 21, 2020, said: “Treasury designated Iran-based Mammut Industrial Group (Mammut Industries) and its subsidiary Mammut Diesel pursuant to E.O. 13382 for providing support to an entity in Iran’s ballistic missile program.”
Executive Order 13382 (E.O. 13382) is an “authority aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters, and isolating them financially.” Designations under the order “prohibit all transactions between the designees and any U.S. person, and freeze any assets the designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction.”
“Mammut Industries and Mammut Diesel are key producers and suppliers of military-grade, dual-use goods for Iran’s missile programs,” the Treasury Department’s notice noted. “Since early 2000, Mammut Industries has supported the production of ballistic missile equipment for Iran’s AIO [Aerospace Industries Organization].”
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“Behzad Ferdows and Mehrzad Ferdows are two of the shareholders of Mammut Industries, and Mehrzad Ferdows is also the company’s CEO,” the notice added. “Mohammad Reza Dezfulian is the Managing Director of Mammut Diesel. Behzad Ferdows, Mehrzad Ferdows, and Mohammad Reza Dezfulian were designated pursuant to E.O. 13382.”
“The U.S. Treasury said it removed sanctions on three Iranians but said this did not reflect a change in its sanctions policy toward Iran and had nothing to do with talks on restoring U.S. and Iranian compliance with the 2015 [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)], the Iran nuclear deal,” the pan-European news network Euronews reported on July 2. “The Treasury said it had determined Behzad Ferdows, Mehrzad Ferdows, and Mohammad Reza Dezfulian are no longer blocked under E.O. 13382, which targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters.”
It is unclear if Mammut Industries and Mammut Diesel have also been removed from the OFAC’s list of sanctioned entities.
In June, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration removed three former Iranian officials from its SDN list. They included Ahmad Ghalebani, a managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company; Farzad Bazargan, a managing director of Hong Kong Intertrade Company; and Mohammad Moinie, a commercial director of Naftiran Intertrade Company Sarl.
“Today, OFAC and the Department of State are lifting sanctions on three former Government of Iran officials,” Reuters reported on June 10, citing a statement by the U.S. Treasury. “The three individuals had established that they are no longer in their positions within entities affiliated with the government of Iran. Therefore, there was no reason to maintain sanctions on them.”
