The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday against a business network that smuggles Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil, as well as sanctions targeting a Hezbollah-controlled financial institution, the Treasury Department said.
The network of companies run by Iraqi businessman Salim Ahmed Said has been buying and shipping billions of dollars worth of Iranian oil disguised as, or blended with, Iraqi oil since at least 2020, the department said in a statement.
“Treasury will continue to target Tehran’s revenue sources and intensify economic pressure to disrupt the regime’s access to the financial resources that fuel its destabilizing activities,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
In February, US President Donald Trump restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, which includes efforts to drive its oil exports to zero and help prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. Washington has also targeted Iran’s proxy groups with sanctions.
Trump then spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path to replace the nuclear deal with Tehran that he tore up during his first term in 2018, but he ultimately decided to join Israel’s military action, which was launched on June 13.
Israel’s unprecedented air campaign targeted Iranian nuclear sites, scientists, and top military brass in a bid to end the country’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is for civilian purposes but Washington and other powers insist is aimed at acquiring atomic weapons.
American B-2 bombers also hit two Iranian nuclear sites with massive GBU-57 bunker-buster bombs last month, while a guided missile submarine struck one of those sites and a third site with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The US and Iran are expected to hold talks about Tehran’s nuclear program next week in Oslo, Axios reported.
Said’s companies and vessels blend Iranian oil with Iraqi oil, which is then sold to Western buyers via Iraq or the United Arab Emirates as purely Iraqi oil using forged documentation to avoid sanctions, the Treasury said.
Said controls UAE-based company VS Tankers, though he avoids formal association with it, the Treasury said. Formerly known as Al-Iraqia Shipping Services & Oil Trading (AISSOT), VS Tankers has smuggled oil for the benefit of the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is designated by Washington as a terrorist organization, it said.
The sanctions block US assets of those designated and prevent Americans from doing business with them.
VS Tankers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Iran’s mission in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The US also sanctioned several vessels that are accused of engaging in the covert delivery of Iranian oil, intensifying pressure on Iran’s “shadow fleet,” it said.
The Treasury Department also issued sanctions against several senior officials and one entity associated with the Hezbollah-controlled financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan.
The officials, the department said, conducted millions of dollars in transactions that ultimately benefited, but obscured, Hezbollah.
Hezbollah was battered in a year-long conflict with Israel, which it sparked by attacking military outposts and communities in northern Israel unprovoked on October 8, 2023, in a show of support for fellow Iranian terror proxy Hamas in Gaza after it led an invasion and onslaught in southern Israel a day earlier.
Since a ceasefire agreement in November brought an end to the fighting, Washington has been pressuring the Lebanese government to fully disarm the terror group.
Israel has continued to carry out targeted strikes on Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure since it signed a ceasefire, alleging violations of the truce agreement.