The United States has imposed a broad set of new sanctions targeting Iran’s overseas oil shipping operations, accusing Tehran of using an elaborate maritime scheme to illegally generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue.
Announced on Wednesday, the sanctions list includes over 100 individuals, shipping firms, and vessels allegedly tied to a vast smuggling network led by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of top Iranian official Ali Shamkhani, a close adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to the US Treasury, Shamkhani relied on his father’s political reach to assemble a fleet of tankers and container ships used to move massive volumes of Iranian and Russian oil to international markets—particularly China—while bypassing global sanctions through complex webs of front companies. The operation, US officials claim, involved systematic money laundering and the concealment of cargo origins through falsified documentation and layered ownership structures.
Twelve individuals—among them nationals from France, the UK, and Italy—along with 52 ships and 15 maritime companies, including one headquartered in Switzerland, were hit by the sanctions.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the move aimed to cut off funding sources used by Tehran to support destabilizing activities: “This network reveals how regime insiders enrich themselves while enabling Iran’s provocative behavior abroad. Today’s actions demonstrate our continued commitment to putting US national security first.”
Described by analysts as the most sweeping Iran-related sanctions package since the Trump administration’s 2018 measures, the crackdown also comes in the wake of reported joint US-Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the new penalties as illegitimate and politically motivated. Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei denounced them as a “hostile act” aimed at hindering Iran’s development, not at curbing any real threat.
Western governments have long viewed Iran’s uranium enrichment efforts as a covert path to acquiring nuclear weapons capability, a charge Tehran continues to deny.
