Members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) gather around the coffins fellow IRGC members who were killed by a suicide car bomb, during their funerals in Isfahan, Iran, Feb. 16, 2019. Photo: Morteza Salehi / Tasnim News Agency / via Reuters.

An illicit smuggling network run by an Omani national that has been supplying oil to Iran’s principal international terrorist force  was the subject of new sanctions announced by the US government on Friday.

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) confirmed that individuals and businesses alike who were involved in smuggling oil for the use of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) had been designated pursuant to Executive Order 13224 — an anti-terrorism order first issued by President George W. Bush in the wake of the September 11, 2001 atrocities carried out by Al Qaeda in New York and Washington, DC.

“The IRGC-QF is using revenues from its Iranian petroleum sales to fund its malign activities at the expense of the Iranian people,” Andrea M. Gacki, the director of OFAC, said in a statement.  “These sales rely on key foreign intermediaries to obscure the IRGC-QF’s involvement, and Treasury will continue to disrupt and expose anyone supporting these efforts.”

Among those designated is an Oman-based businessman, Mahmood Rashid Amur Al Habsi, who facilitated the sale and shipment of Iranian oil through his companies to obscure the IRGC-QF’s involvement, according to OFAC.

A company owned by Al Habsi, Nimr International L.L.C., was also sanctioned, as was Orbit Petrochemicals Trading LLC, an Omani company he used as a facilitator for his dealings with the Iranian regime.

OFAC added that Bravery Maritime Corporation, a Liberian-registered company, was being designated for being owned, controlled, or directed by, directly or indirectly, Al Habsi.  The Liberian-flagged crude oil tanker “Oman Pride,” which has been used to transport Iranian oil, was identified as property in which Bravery Maritime Corporation has an interest, OFAC said.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken voiced his support for the Treasury Department’s move in a separate statement.

“The IRGC-QF has been using revenue from Iranian petroleum sales to fund its malign activities,” Blinken said. “These sales depend on foreign intermediaries to obscure the IRGC-QF’s involvement. The United States will continue to expose and disrupt those supporting such efforts.”

The shadowy IRGC-QF is dedicated to exporting the Islamic revolution abroad. It has been a central player in regional conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, training and arming groups that include the Lebanese Shi’a terrorist organization Hezbollah. Both the IRGC-QF and its parent, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), have been comprehensively sanctioned by the US for their sponsorship of terrorism.