The US has slapped sanctions on two more tankers and related players for their involvement in shipments of Iranian commodities to fund the activities of Iran’s Quds Force, the Houthis, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The Department of Treasury has blacklisted the Panama-flagged suezmax tanker Dawn II and its Liberia-based owner Hassaleh International as well as the Palau-flagged aframax Abyss (pictured) together with its Vietnamese owner Quoc Viet Marine Transport, and India-based operator Melody Shipmanagement for being linked to schemes of Houthi financial facilitator Sa’id al-Jamal.
The Sa’id al-Jamal network uses a web of companies and vessels to facilitate shipments of Iranian commodities through forged shipping documents and other deceptive practices, the Treasury statement said.
The 2000-built 160,000 dwt Dawn II and 1998-built 105,000 dwt Abyss have both been sanctioned for shipping Iranian crude to China.
India-based KNH Shipping was also sanctioned for providing forged shipping documents to the al-Jamal network.
“Like the Dawn II, the Abyss utilised forged shipping documents to disguise the Iranian origin of its cargo,” the Treasury noted.
The latest action is the sixth round of sanctions targeting al-Jamal’s network since December 2023.
“The United States will continue to take action to disrupt the abuse of international energy markets to facilitate terrorist activities,” Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial Intelligence, said in a statement.
