The United States has imposed sanctions on companies, individuals, and vessels linked to the Qaterji company, which is close to the Syrian regime, on charges of generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
On Thursday, November 14, the US Treasury Department announced on its official website that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had sanctioned 26 companies, individuals, and vessels associated with Qaterji, deeming it responsible for generating funds for the Quds Force within the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Ansarallah (Houthis) militias.
The announcement added that Qaterji is involved in generating funds for the Revolutionary Guard Corps by selling Iranian oil to Syria and China.
After previously being designated for its role in facilitating fuel sales between the Syrian regime and the Islamic State group, Qaterji has become one of the main channels through which the Quds Force generates revenue to fund its regional proxy groups.
According to the department, the Office of Foreign Assets Control is expanding its targeting of the Qaterji network and its fleet of ships to prevent the Quds Force and the Revolutionary Guard Corps from benefiting from this relationship.
The US Treasury stated that Qaterji exports millions of barrels of Iranian oil, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, to Syria and East Asia, including the People’s Republic of China, to finance the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Houthis.
As of 2024, the company has become one of the main financial channels for the Revolutionary Guard Corps, enabling it to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue this year alone.
Qaterji is laundering much of this money in major cities like Turkish Istanbul and the Lebanese capital Beirut.
According to the US Treasury, Qaterji sends some oil revenues to the Houthis, who receive millions of dollars from it every month.
The sanctions included a number of vessels belonging to the company itself.
The US Treasury stated that Hussam bin Ahmed Rushdi Qaterji has become the leader of the company since the death of Mohammad Baraa Qaterji in mid-this year.
Mohammad Baraa Qaterji was managing the company before he was assassinated at the Syrian-Lebanese border in an airstrike attributed to Israel on July 15th.
At that time, Reuters reported, citing three unnamed security sources, that Baraa Qaterji was killed in an Israeli airstrike near the Syrian-Lebanese border.
Baraa Qaterji had managed the import of Iranian oil over the past ten years until his death, according to the Israeli military.
Relations with the Quds Force
The managers of the Qaterji company have met directly with senior officials of the Quds Force and their other financial backers, according to the US Treasury, including the financial official of the Houthi militia supported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and listed on the sanctions list, Said al-Jamal.
Hussam Qaterji works with Mohammad Agha Ahmed Rushdi Qaterji in the Oil Portfolio of Qaterji, and Abbas Qaterji, son of Mohammad Qaterji, also works in the company.
The US Treasury has listed Hussam Qaterji on the sanctions list due to his work or claims of working on behalf of the Qaterji company, acknowledging that he was previously listed on the sanctions list on November 9, 2020, for his role in mediating oil trade between the regime and the Islamic State group.
The US Department also designated Mohammad Agha Ahmed Rushdi Qaterji and Abbas Qaterji on the sanctions list for their work or claims of working directly or indirectly for the Qaterji company.
Funding of Hezbollah
On October 22, the Israeli army released a video recording illustrating through maps the mechanisms through which the Lebanese Hezbollah receives funding, part of which is provided by Iran via Syria, and the other part collected from Lebanese citizens.
The recording, published on “X” in multiple languages, on the evening of Monday, October 21, explained that Iran sends money to Hezbollah through three routes: land, sea, and air.
It added that the land route is linked to the Syrian economy, as Iran sends oil via Iraq, reaching Syria.
These oil shipments are sold to the Qaterji company, a front company associated with the Syrian regime.
Iran transfers the money it earns from oil trade in Syria to Hezbollah.
According to the Israeli army, the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps supervises the oil transportation to Syria to secure liquidity for Hezbollah.
It noted that many Syrian companies are involved in purchasing Iranian oil in Syria, including the B.S company owned by the Qaterji family.
Link to the Presidential Palace
In recent years, the Syrian regime has relied on names that suddenly appeared in the economic world, with no previous history in economic or financial activities, now occupying centers and activities that historically fall within the Assad family’s areas of expertise, according to a study by the Harmoon Center for Contemporary Studies at the end of May 2022.
Rami Makhlouf, the cousin of regime president Bashar al-Assad, previously managed the family’s activities as a partner and treasurer for their businesses. Changes in the war economy and external sanctions led to the emergence of new war millionaires, alongside remnants of the old elite active in the country, forming “fronts” for the family as per the study.
The expansion of the family’s influence and strengthening of its presence in the country’s economy was confirmed by a decision issued by the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection in the regime’s government in December 2022, allowing the B.S company, owned by the family, to sell fuels to economic activities, including diesel and gasoline.
The rise of the Qaterji family began after George Haswani, the owner of the HESCO natural gas production company, retreated following European sanctions imposed on him, quietly making way for Hussam Qaterji and his brothers, who took over the oil transportation sector from areas formerly controlled by the Islamic State and currently by the SDF, according to the Harmoon Center’s study.
The family’s influence on the sector developed through the formation of a militia that fought alongside regime forces, but its primary goal was to protect its commercial convoys. In 2018, the Qaterji brothers (Hussam, Mohammad Baraa, Ahmed Bashir) established the George Haswani, which acquired 80% of two oil refining companies established in 2020.