BEHIND THE IRAN HEADLINES Series, June 5, 2023, Alireza Jafarzadeh, NCRI-US Deputy Director
The revelation by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, U.S. Representative Office, where we exposed “The IRGC Papers,” made it evident that the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has enabled its Revolutionary Guards to get two-thirds of the revenue of all oil exports to fund terrorism abroad and suppress the protesters inside Iran.
A benign-looking company named the Petrochemical Commercial Company International, or PCCI, bypasses the U.S. oil sanctions and sells billions of dollars of oil and petrochemical products.
PCCI is a subsidiary of “PArsian Oil and Gas Development Group” owned by Ghadir Investment Holding, one of Iran’s commercial and investment giants. Ghadir belongs to the Social Security Organization of the Armed Forces (SATA), which the Revolutionary Guards, or the IRGC, control.
The obtained documents show that PCCI has been doing several things:
Selling the crude oil quota belonging to the Armed Forces General Staff. That is two-thirds of all the oil exports.
Selling Venezuelan oil, which is like Iran, under U.S. sanctions.
Selling the chemical product Urea, which is used for making explosives, to the terrorist-designated Houthis in Yemen.
Performing currency transfer operations, which is prohibited under the sanctions.
Supplying Syrian dictator, Assad with oil on behalf of the Ministry of Defense.
The revenue made thru PCCI for the benefit of the IRGC is used in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq, to support its regional proxies and fund terrorism.
However, documents also show that PCCI-affiliated companies have funded the suppression of the workers in southern Iran who had revolted against the regime just a few months ago.
So, clearly, every dollar resulting from oil sales is used for inciting violence abroad and suppression at home.
Now is the time for the United States and other Western nations to re-impose all six U.N. Security Council resolutions on the Iranian regime, which is a meaningful way to stand on the side of the Iranian people.