By Ian Talley 

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. on Tuesday sanctioned a multibillion-dollar network of Iranian companies, banks and funds accused of financing the country's elite paramilitary unit, ratcheting up global pressure on Tehran and sending a warning to governments and companies considering continued engagement with Iran.

By targeting the Basij militia's financing network and citing the group's alleged use of child soldiers and other human-rights abuses, the U.S. hopes to not only choke off funding to the prominent Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unit, but also scare off any business dealings with the country.

"The IRGC is pervasive within the Iranian economy," a senior administration official said. "This is precisely the kind of activity that we have warned other companies and governments about extensively."

From China to Europe, many governments and companies are considering keeping financial and trade ties with Tehran as a way to keep the country's critical oil supplies flowing and to oppose Washington's decision earlier this year to pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The U.S. Treasury's sanctions expose the Basij's ownership and control of banks and companies integrated across the entire Iranian economy. And by doing so, they link a unit condemned by human-rights groups and blacklisted by many Western governments, including the European Union, to corporations and financial institutions that do business in Europe and around the globe.

Write to Ian Talley at ian.talley@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 16, 2018 14:07 ET (18:07 GMT)