Iranian Oil

Oct. 10 (UPI) — The United States has sanctioned more than 50 people, entities and vessels accused of facilitating the sale of Iranian oil and liquefied petroleum gas, as the Trump administration continues to tighten its financial vise on Tehran.

The sanctions target nearly two dozen shipping vessels, a China-based crude oil terminal and a Chinese so-called teapot refinery that the Treasury accuses of moving hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of LPG for Iran.

The Treasury said that Shandong Jincheng Petrochemical Group, an independent teapot refinery in Shandong Province, has purchased millions of barrels of Iranian oil since 2023, receiving the shipments worth hundreds of millions of dollars via Iran’s shadow fleet of vessels.

The China-based Rizhao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal was also blacklisted for accepting more than a dozen of those shadow fleet ships.

“The Treasury Department is degrading Iran’s cash flow by dismantling key elements of Iran’s energy export machine,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

“Under President [Donald] Trump, this administration is disrupting the regime’s ability to fund terrorist groups that threaten the United States.”

The sanctions are the fourth round of the second Trump administration to target China-based refiners accused of purchasing Iranian oil and follow the U.S. blacklisting of facilitators of Iran’s oil trade on Aug. 22 and a network of dozens of individuals, entities and vessels that make up Tehran’s shipping network on July 30.

The sanctions continue the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign that failed during his first term to bring Iran to the negotiating table on a new deal.

The punitive policy was initially launched in 2018, when Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark multinational Obama-era accord aimed at preventing Iran from securing a nuclear weapon as part of efforts to cobble together one of his own.

The maximum pressure campaign of sanctions and other measures was employed in an effort to compel Iran to resume negotiations on a new deal.

Instead, Iran continued to advance its nuclear program.

The previous Biden administration attempted to restart negotiations with Iran on reinstating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but those prospects were dashed when Iran-backed Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The second iteration of the maximum pressure campaign was launched on Feb. 4 with Trump’s signing of National Security Presidential Memorandum 2, which seeks to “impose maximum pressure on the Iranian regime to end its nuclear threat, curtail its ballistic missile program and stop its support for terrorist groups.”

The policy’s second iteration is a broader focus on China’s aid to Iran, secondary sanctions and a targeting of Tehran’s shadow fleet

The sanctions announced Thursday coincided with the Treasury also sanctioning a network of individuals and companies assisting Iran with evading U.S. sanctions.

It also blacklisted 44 individuals and firms accused of being involved in Iran’s nuclear program and weapons procurement network earlier this month.

Sept. 16 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Treasury announced Tuesday that it’s sanctioning two Iranian financial facilitators and more than a dozen Hong Kong- and United Arab Emirates-based people and entities for “shadow banking” in support of Iran.

The Treasury Department alleged that these people helped coordinate funds transfers, including from the sale of Iranian oil, that benefited the IRGC-Qods Force and Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, a press release said.

“Iranian entities rely on shadow banking networks to evade sanctions and move millions through the international financial system,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley said in a statement. “Under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, we will continue to disrupt these key financial streams that fund Iran’s weapons programs and malign activities in the Middle East and beyond.”

The department said that between 2023 and 2025, Iranian nationals Alireza Derakhshan and Arash Estaki Alivand worked to facilitate the purchase of over $100 million worth of cryptocurrency for oil sales for the Iranian government. Derakhshan and Alivand used a network of front companies in foreign jurisdictions to transfer the cryptocurrency funds, the release said.

The two are now considered “blocked,” meaning all their assets in the United States will be seized, and Americans and their companies can’t do business with them or their businesses.

Besides Derakhshan and Alivand, the department named several other people and businesses that are now blocked from American trade.

Shadow banking is credit intermediation by entities outside the regular banking system, performing bank-like functions, like maturity transformation and liquidity transformation, without the same strict regulatory oversight as traditional banks.

Britain, Germany and France sent a letter in late August to the United Nations Security Council saying they are starting the 30-day process of “snapback” of sanctions against Iran.

The snapback is used to re-impose sanctions on Iran in the event of “significant non-performance” of treaty commitments. The sanctions were suspended under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal.

Aug. 22 (UPI) — The United States is targeting facilitators of Iran’s oil trade, as the Trump administration enforces its so-called maximum pressure campaign on the Tehran regime.

The sanctions were announced Thursday, targeting Greek national Antonios Margaritis and his network of international companies and their shipping vessels, as well as two Chinese port-terminal operators.

The Treasury said it sanctioned 49-year-old Antonios Margaritis, five of his companies based in the Marshall Islands and Hong Kong, as well as nearly a dozen tankers, on accusations of being involved in Iran’s shadow fleet shipping industry that facilitates the sale and transport of the Islamic nation’s oil.

Margaritis is accused of facilitating the transport of Iranian oil products for years.

The Treasury said it also blacklisted six other companies and a handful of vessels not connected to Margaritis but fulfilling a similar role for Tehran.

The two Chinese port-terminal operators — Qingdao Port Haiye Dongjiakou Oil Products and Yangshan Shengang International Petroleum Storage and Transportation — were blacklisted by the State Department, which accused them of facilitating the import of millions of barrels of Iranian-origin oil onboard multiple U.S.-designated tankers.

The move is the fourth time the State Department has targeted China-based terminal operators for their involvement in Iranian oil.

“Today, the United States is stemming the flow of revenue the Iranian Regime uses to fund its destabilizing activities, including its support for terrorism abroad and the oppression of its own people,” Tommy Piggott, principal deputy spokesperson at the State Department, said in a statement.

The sanctions are part of the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign that failed during his first term to bring Iran to the negotiating table on a new deal.

The punitive policy was initiated in 2018 after Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark multinational Obama-era accord aimed at preventing Iran from securing a nuclear weapon.

Trump ended the deal as he sought one of his own, employing the maximum pressure campaign to force Iran back to the negotiating table.

Instead, Iran advanced its nuclear program.

The previous Biden administration attempted to restart negotiations with Iran on reinstating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but those prospects ended when Iran-backed Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The new campaign, according to Trump’s Feb. 4 National Security Presidential Memorandum, seeks to “impose maximum pressure on the Iranian regime to end its nuclear threat, curtail its ballistic missile program and stop its support for terrorist groups.”

July 31 (UPI) — The United States on Wednesday sanctioned dozens of individuals, entities and vessels accused of being an Iranian oil and petroleum shipping network, as the Trump administration continues with its so-called maximum pressure campaign targeting Tehran.

The 50 people and entities and 50 vessels blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury, along with 20 entities and 10 vessels sanctioned by the State Department on Wednesday, represent the largest punitive package against Iran since 2018, when President Donald Trump first imposed mass sanctions against Iran during his first term.

In 2018, Trump pulled the United States from a landmark multinational Obama-era accord aimed at preventing Tehran from securing a nuclear weapon, and slapped sanctions on the country as part of his maximum pressure campaign that failed to bring Iran to the negotiating table on a new deal.

Instead, Iran escalated its nuclear program to the point that the State Department remarked in 2022 that it would need as little as a week to produce enough weapons-grade highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.

Trump reinstated his maximum pressure campaign on Iran in February and has been targeting its ability to generate revenue since. He also attacked three Iranian nuclear sites last month, amid Israel’s war against Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza.

The sanctions unveiled Wednesday target the vast shipping network of 49-year-old Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani that the United States accuses of laundering billions in profit from the sales of Iranian and Russian crude oil and other petroleum products to buyers mostly in China.

Hossein is the son of Ali Shamkhani, a top political advisor to Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and who was sanctioned by the United States in 2020.

“The Shamkhani family’s shipping empire highlights how the Iranian regime elites leverage their positions to accrue massive wealth and fund the regime’s dangerous behavior,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

“These actions put America first by targeting regime elites that profit while Tehran threatens the safety of the United States.”

Bessent added on X that with Wednesday’s sanctions, the United States has sanctioned more than 500 Iranian and Iran-linked targets this year.

The announcement of sanctions comes a day after Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, threatened to retaliate against any new threats to its nuclear program.

“If aggression is repeated, we will not hesitate to react in a more decisive manner and in a way that will be IMPOSSIBLE to cover up,” he said on X on Monday.

Trump claimed his strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, while others have questioned the severity of the damage.

May 14 (UPI) — The United States has imposed additional Iran-related sanctions, as the Trump administration negotiates with Tehran on a new nuclear weapons deal.

The sanctions announced Tuesday by the U.S. Treasury target an Iranian oil smuggling network the Trump administration accuses of generating billions of dollars for the Tehran regime’s military and proxy forces.

Fifteen front companies, buyers and facilitators in Hong Kong, mainland China, the Seychelles and Singapore were hit by the punitive measures, along with 52-year-old Iranian national Mohammad Khorasani Niasari and two shipping vessels.

The secondary sanctions were levied due to their links to Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars Company, which the previous Biden administration blacklisted in November 2023 for overseeing the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff’s network of front companies that it uses to sell commodities, including oil, internationally — funds that are used to further Iran’s weapons and nuclear programs and other destabilizing activities.

According to Treasury officials Sepehr Energy obfuscates the origin of these oil shipments through a series of deals involving between multiple front companies it owns. Some of the entities that were blacklisted Tuesday were established in China and Hong Kong.

Among the tactics deployed to conceal the oil’s Iranian origin is the use of ship-to-ship transfers at sea before the cargo reaches China. Once in the country, Sepehr Energy relies on complicit local agencies willing to aid their sanctioned sales.

Khorasani is a financial inspector for Sepehr Energy and its affiliates and was sanctioned Tuesday for helping to manage the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff’s transactions.

“As long as Iran devotes its illicit revenues to funding attacks on the United States and our allies, supporting terrorism around the world and pursuing other destabilizing actions, we will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to hold the regime accountable,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

The sanctions are the latest the Trump administration has imposed since early February when President Donald Trump resumed his so-called maximum pressure policy from his first term — an effort that failed to coerce Iran into returning to the negotiating table for a new nuclear weapons deal.

During his first term in office, Trump imposed sanctions against Iran and unilaterally withdrew the United States from a landmark Obama-era multinational nuclear accord aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Trump applied his maximum pressure campaign of sanctions and political pressure to force Tehran to negotiate a new deal he believed would be better. Instead, the Middle Eastern country ignored its obligations under the accord and escalated its nuclear weapons program to the point where the U.S. government estimates Iran could need as little as a week to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a single nuclear bomb.

However, talks about a new nuclear deal between the two countries have resumed during the Trump’s second term, with State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott telling reporters in at a Washington press conference on Tuesday that the negotiations “continue to show progress.”

There have been four rounds of informal talks with the fifth round yet to be scheduled.

Trump, speaking in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, called on Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions and accept “a much better path toward a far better and more hopeful future” or expect consequences. The United States under administration of both Democrats and Republicans have said they will not permit Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

“I want to make a deal with Iran,” Trump said. “This is an offer that will not last forever. The time is right now to choose. We don’t have a lot of time to wait.”

The Trump administration is demanding that Iran discontinue its uranium enrichment program and dismantle its facilities. Iran has said it will not compromise on its enrichment capabilities.

On Monday, after the United States blacklisted three Iranians and a related technology firm involved in nuclear weapons research, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Majid Takht-Ravanchi suggested there was a possibility of negotiating on its enrichment allotments.

For a limited period of time, we can accept a series of restrictions on the level and volume of enrichment,” he said, state-run Press TV reported.

“We have not yet gone into details about the level and volume of enrichment.”

According to the Treasury, since Trump announced the resumption of his maximum pressure campaign, the United States has sanctioned 253 individuals, entities and vessels related to Iran and its proxies.