The United States imposed sanctions Thursday on Iran's Bank Refah for its ties with the country's proscribed weapons programs. The US Treasury Department accused Bank Refah of providing financial services to the Iranian Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA).
In recent years Bank Refah has helped MODAFL obtain millions of dollars' worth of weapons-related purchases, the Treasury department said in a statement. "These purchases included missiles and tanks and enabled Iran's leadership to maintain its fighter jets and submarines. Bank Refah also facilitated payments from HESA to businesses and individuals linked to Iran's weapons-related procurement," the department said.
The two Iranian government entities are already under US sanctions. MODAFL, the arm of the Iranian military that oversees Iran's ballistic missile program, was designated by the State Department in October 2007. The Treasury targeted HESA in September 2008 for being owned or controlled by MODAFL and for providing support to the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The sanction was imposed under an executive order aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and their supporters, cutting them off from the US financial and commercial systems.