The US Treasury on Wednesday lifted sanctions on a former Israeli general who allegedly supplied weapons to both the South Sudanese government and the opposition.

Israel Ziv, a retired IDF major general and owner of security consulting group Global CST, has been slapped with US sanctions since December 2018.

US officials said Ziv cloaked the sales of $150 million worth of weapons to the South Sudanese government by running them through an agricultural company. 

The statement said Ziv also “planned to organize attacks by mercenaries on South Sudanese oil fields and infrastructure, in an effort to create a problem that only his company and affiliates could solve.”

In 2018, the government of South Sudan denied purchasing weapons from Ziv, saying the US decision to impose sanctions against him and two others was based on false information.

The president’s spokesman, Ateny Wek Ateny, told Radio Tamazuj in 2018 that South Sudan government has “never bought weapons and ammunition from the retired Israeli general because he was working in the agricultural sector.”