Iran’s Illicit Oil Sales Help Fuel Mass Military Buildup
The Biden administration’s lax enforcement of sanctions on Iran’s illicit oil trade has allowed the hardline regime to infuse more than $15 billion into its military and terrorist proxies during the past two years, according to analysis by a watchdog group.
Iranian military spending significantly jumped in 2022 as the regime got more access to cash through its multibillion-dollar trade in illicit oil—cash that made its way to the regime as a result of the Biden administration’s decision not to enforce U.S. sanctions, according to United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a watchdog group that tracks the regime’s oil sales and military spending.
Iran, according to a report by UANI and an open source military spending database, has allocated $10.5 billion this year for its military and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a paramilitary fighting force that backs terrorist groups across the region. That number, which jumped from $4.5 billion in 2021, comes after the regime took in some $43 billion in funds from illicit oil sales, primarily to China. This cash is fueling Iran’s regional terror enterprise, as well as its crackdown at home on a growing protest movement that threatens to topple the hardline regime.
“Once it became clear that the Biden administration would not enforce sanctions as strictly as the Trump administration, the Iranian government drastically increased its military spending,” according to UANI’s latest analysis. “These revenue changes have led to an increase in the Iranian government’s military spending, which includes outlays to its terrorist proxies.”
Iran, the watchdog group concluded, became “substantially richer over Biden’s first year in office—partly due to high oil prices but also due to the increased export volumes.” Iran sold $30.09 billion worth of oil in 2021, when Biden entered office, and that number rose to $43 billion this year. Most of these sales were to China, Syria, and Venezuela. It is a substantial increase from the $12.5 billion worth the country sold in 2020, when sanctions were still being strictly enforced.
Analysts, UANI says, “generally agree that Iran was forced to reduce its support to Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Iraqi
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