WASHINGTON — The United States has moved to disrupt an Iranian-Russian network that sent millions of barrels of oil to Syria and hundreds of millions of dollars to indirectly fund militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

The complicated arrangement, described by the US Treasury in a statement on Tuesday, involved a Syrian citizen allegedly using his Russia-based company to ship Iranian oil to Syria with the aid of a Russian state-owned company.

Syria then helped transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to Hezbollah, which functions as a political party that is part of the Lebanese government and as a militia, as well as to Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules the Gaza Strip.

The US Treasury Department alleged that since 2014, vessels carrying Iranian oil have switched off transponders to conceal deliveries to Syria.

The Treasury, the State Department and the US Coast Guard State have issued an advisory to the maritime community about the sanctions risks of shipping oil to Syria’s government.

An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman called the sanctions “fruitless, illogical and inefficient”.

Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA on Wednesday: “Those who designed and implemented these sanctions will understand sooner or later that they will not achieve their goals.”

The alleged arrangement shows how Russia has sought to undercut US policy toward Syria, where Washington and Moscow back opposite sides of a civil war that began in 2011, as well as toward Iran, which the United States wants to curb its nuclear and missile programs and support for militant proxies.

“Today we are acting against a complex scheme Iran and Russia have used to bolster the (Syrian President Bashar) Assad regime and generate funds for Iranian malign activity,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement announcing sanctions on those it said were tied to the network.

“Central Bank of Iran officials continue to exploit the international financial system,” he added.

Richard Nephew, a sanctions expert at Columbia University, said: “The arrangement exposes Russia’s efforts to support Assad for their own interests, which has the function of thwarting the US desire to no longer have Assad in power.”

Those targeted include Syrian Mohammad Amer Alchwiki and his Russia-based company Global Vision Group, which were central to the delivery of Iranian oil to Syria and the transfer of funds to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force’s “lethal proxies”, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

Other targets include Syrian national Hajji Abd Al-Nasir, Lebanon national Muhammad Qasim Al-Bazzal and Russian national Andrey Dogaev, as well as Iranian nationals Rasoul Sajjad and Hossein Yaghoubi Miab, the statement said.

Sajjad and Yaghoubi, Central Bank of Iran officials, worked to facilitate Alchwiki’s transfers, it said.

Others sanctioned include state-owned Russian company Promsyrioimport, a subsidiary of the Russian Ministry of Energy, which the US Treasury alleges had facilitated shipments of Iranian oil to Syria, as well as Mir Business Bank and Iran-based Tadbir Kish Medical and Pharmaceutical Company. — Reuters