The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on a shipping empire controlled by the son of a top political advisor to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Treasury Department said sanctions were being imposed on companies and vessels operated by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of Ali Shamkhani, who has been subject to US sanctions since 2020.
It said Hossein operates a fleet of more than 50 tankers and container ships that transport Iranian and Russian oil and petroleum products, generating tens of billions of dollars in profit.
"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.
The Treasury Department said more than 115 individuals, corporate entities and vessels were being sanctioned including companies based in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland and other countries.
"The over 115 sanctions issued today are the largest to-date since the Trump Administration implemented our campaign of maximum pressure on Iran," Bessent said.
The sanctions are being imposed over a month after the United States attacked Iran's nuclear program, hitting a uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender told reporters he did not expect the sanctions to result in "sustained disruption to global oil markets."
"This is a targeted action against Iran's illicit oil smuggling, a significant majority of which goes to China," Faulkender said.
"By exposing this activity we're helping legitimate firms avoid this trade and further disrupting Iran's ability to raise revenue for its destabilizing activity," he said.
Faulkender said Iran was exporting about 1.8 million barrels of crude oil per day at the beginning of the year and the current figure is around 1.2 million barrels per day.
"We're still engaging in further action to bring that number down even more," he said.
With AFP
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