The United States imposed sanctions on 22 companies in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey on Wednesday for their roles in helping sell Iranian oil, the Treasury Department said.

The oil sales benefit Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, Iran’s most powerful paramilitary organisation, it said. The US has designated Quds as a foreign terrorist organisation.

The Quds Force employs front companies outside of Iran that use offshore accounts to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in profits derived from Iranian oil sales to circumvent US sanctions, Treasury said.

The money funds Iran’s weapons programs and proxy groups across the region, according to the Treasury Department, which has imposed waves of sanctions targeting such activities.

“The Iranian regime relies heavily on its shadow banking system to fund its destabilising nuclear and ballistic missile weapons programs, rather than for the benefit of the Iranian people,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.