The US sanctions twenty people, companies and oil tankers linked to the “regime elite” of Iran

The United States Government announced this Wednesday the imposition of sanctions against twenty people, entities and vessels linked to an oil transportation network directed by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of the secretary of the National Defense Council of Iran, Ali Shamkhani, who died on the first day of joint bombings launched by the United States and Israel against Iran at the end of February.

The Treasury Department has indicated in a statement that the decision affects “more than two dozen people, companies and vessels that operate within the network of Iranian shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani,” whom it accuses of leading “a multibillion-dollar Iranian and Russian oil sales empire that enriches a family linked to the highest levels of the Iranian regime at the expense of the Iranian people.”

In addition to this, another Iranian citizen and “three companies linked to a complex money laundering scheme that involved the sale of Iranian oil in exchange for Venezuelan gold during the former Venezuelan dictatorship, all ultimately on behalf of Hezbollah and the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have been sanctioned.”

The sanctions also affect a person resident in the United Arab Emirates, several companies based in this country, India and the Marshall Islands, and ships flying the flags of Mozambique, Panama and Cameroon.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has framed these sanctions as part of “Operation Economic Fury against the elites” of Tehran, which it accuses of trying to “profit at the expense of the Iranian people,” in the words of the head of the portfolio, Scott Bessent.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Treasury Department will continue to dismantle illicit smuggling networks and terrorist groups operating in Iran. Financial institutions should be warned that the Treasury Department will use all tools and powers at its disposal, including secondary sanctions, against those who continue to support Tehran’s terrorist activities,” he added.