The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Wednesday (25 February) on more than 30 individuals, entities and "shadow fleet" vessels it said enabled Iran's illicit petroleum sales, ballistic missiles and weapons production.
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control also targeted multiple networks that enable Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics to secure the precursor materials and machinery required for ballistic missile and other weapons production, the department said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a campaign to clamp down on Iran's economy.
He also sent U.S. military forces to the Middle East and warned of a possible attack if Tehran does not reach a deal to resolve the longstanding dispute over its nuclear program.
Trump briefly laid out his case for a possible attack in his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night.
Iran says its nuclear research is for civilian energy production. A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday that Tehran and Washington remain sharply divided over which sanctions should be lifted and when.
Iran did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new sanctions.
The sanctions targeted 12 shadow fleet vessels and their owners or operators that have collectively transported hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products, the Treasury said.
The shadow fleet refers to ships that carry oil that is under sanctions. They are typically old, their ownership opaque and they sail without the top-tier insurance cover needed to meet international standards for major oil companies and many ports.
"Iran exploits financial systems to sell illicit oil, launder the proceeds, procure components for its nuclear and conventional weapons programs, and support its terrorist proxies," Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement.
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The European Union has proposed extending its sanctions against Russia to include ports in Georgia and Indonesia that handle Russian oil, the first time the bloc would target ports in third countries, a proposal document showed on Monday.
Ukraine has carried out its first aerial drone strike on a Russian “shadow fleet” oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea, reflecting a growing intensity in Kyiv’s attacks on Russian oil shipping, officials said on Friday (19 December).
Kyiv has escalated its naval campaign against Moscow’s economic lifelines, claiming a successful strike on a vessel suspected of skirting international sanctions within the Black Sea.
NATO navies are ramping up its defence in the Baltic and North Seas as Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of deceptive vessels grows rapidly, raising fears of espionage and sabotage against critical infrastructure.
The Taliban in Kabul has rejected Russian claims that more than 23,000 militants from around 20 international terror groups are currently operating within Afghanistan.
Seven people were killed after gunmen ambushed a police patrol in Kohat, a district in Pakistan’s north-west near the Afghan border, on Tuesday, in an attack that comes amid rising militant violence and heightened tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Four members of Syria’s Internal Security Forces were killed and two others injured on Monday (23 February) in an attack by the ISIS (Daesh) terrorist group targeting a checkpoint west of Raqqa in northeastern Syria, the Interior Ministry said.
Four years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the war can be measured not only in lives and territory, but in money. In Part One, the war’s cost was measured in casualties and kilometres. In Part Two, it is measured in billions of dollars.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest State of the Union address set out a second-term agenda built on economic protectionism, military strength and a hard line on Iran, signalling a strategy that pairs diplomatic engagement with firm red lines, Assoc. Prof. Orkhan Valiyev told AnewZ Daybreak.
Switzerland said on Wednesday (25 February) it would make a one-off payment of 50,000 Swiss francs ($56,000) to each severely injured survivor and to the bereaved families of those killed in the New Year bar fire at the ski resort of Crans-Montana.
Russia has claimed its forces have taken control of a village in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv’s new Flamingo missiles successfully struck targets deep inside Russian territory, underscoring the continuing intensity of the conflict.
South Korea and the United States will conduct joint military drills, known as Freedom Shield, from 9 to 19 March, military officials from both countries announced on Wednesday.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has taken responsibility for his past ties to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a town hall meeting with employees of the Gates Foundation, a spokesperson confirmed.
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