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.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has dismissed media reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow ear...
A glacial collapse that triggered catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday has killed at least 270 people, with more than 1,...
Uzbekistan's region of Karakalpakstan is developing three cryptocurrency mining facilities and three data c...
Oil prices fell after the U.S. expanded economic sanctions on Iran, as Tehran vowed to retaliate and warned it had tools to respond, raising concerns over potential disruption to regional oil supplies.
Rescuers in Nepal used helicopters on Thursday to scour for hundreds still missing after a wall of mud and rock collapsed into a river on the Himalayan border with China's Tibet, sending catastrophic floods through towns and valleys, killing 162 people.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told allied foreign ministers Washington will focus on sanctions and other pressure on Iran “for the time being”, Axios reports. Meanwhile, Iran and Oman have resumed talks on a temporary shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.
Kyiv has recently received a small number of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors capable of downing Russian ballistic missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. It comes as Britain and France pledged stronger military support for Ukraine.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for greater economic cooperation among Muslim countries, saying their combined economic weight remains disproportionately small compared with their population, strategic location and resources.
A glacial collapse that triggered catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday has killed at least 270 people, with more than 1,000 still missing. Here are some of the most devastating glacier-related disasters recorded around the world:
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says 3.7 million children across Afghanistan are suffering from acute wasting, a dangerous form of malnutrition, including around one million with severe acute malnutrition, as hospitals and aid services face rising demand and funding shortages.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has dismissed media reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow earlier this week to warn Russia against attacking NATO, dismissing them as "scare stories," which had nothing to do with reality.
Icelanders will vote on Saturday, 29 August, on whether to resume negotiations with the European Union, in a referendum that could reopen the country’s long-debated membership question.
Israel is set to return the body of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy more than nine months after he was killed by Israeli forces and his remains were placed in Israeli custody, according to a Palestinian campaign seeking the return of bodies.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment