Last year, in response to accusations that it was allowing Iran to evade international sanctions, Georgia issued a flat denial. This morning, the Wall Street Journal evaluated that denial and came away…
unimpressed:
In recent months, Iranian nationals have taken the reins of a private Georgian airline, a major trade bank and a scrap-metal plant. Persian is often heard, such as on a recent night at a Tbilisi casino, where Iranian tourists played roulette and sipped drinks brought by Russian hostesses… This is a boom being closely watched by U.S. authorities charged with enforcing sanctions that aim to block Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons… In some cases, they may have reason for concern. The business branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has some 150 front companies in Georgia for the purpose of evading sanctions and importing dual-use technology, according to two members of the Revolutionary Guard and to the head of a Tbilisi facilitator agency—who said he helped set up such firms registered under Georgians’ names.
One of the products from one of the companies, the Parsian Civilization Development Corporation, is supposed to be used for jamming mobile phones.
The IRGC is specifically designated by the Treasury Department, independent of more general sanctions placed on Iran:
The IRGC continues to be a primary focus of U.S. and international sanctions against Iran because of the central role it plays in Iran’s missile and nuclear programs, its support for terrorism, as well as its involvement in serious human rights abuses. The U.S., UN, EU, Japan, South Korea and others have all targeted the IRGC for sanctions because of this illicit activity. With the IRGC’s expanding influence and control over broader segments of the Iranian economy – including the defense production, construction, and oil and gas industries – increasing numbers of Iranian businesses are subsumed under the IRGC’s umbrella and identified with its illicit conduct.