US Sanctions Over 30 Tied to Iran's Oil Trade, Weapons

The United States imposed sanctions on Wednesday on more than 30 individuals, companies, and vessels connected to Iran's illicit oil trade and weapons development programs, as part of an ongoing effort to disrupt Tehran's revenue sources and military capabilities. The action, announced by the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, targets 12 tankers in Iran's so-called shadow fleet, which have transported hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sanctioned Iranian petroleum products since 2023.

These vessels, operating under foreign flags and obscured ownership structures, have shipped significant volumes of Iranian crude oil, liquefied petroleum gas, high-sulfur fuel oil, condensate, naphtha, and grey ammonia to markets in Bangladesh, Pakistan, East Asia, and other regions. Among the designated ships are the Panama-flagged HOOT, which carried hundreds of thousands of barrels of liquefied petroleum gas to Bangladesh in 2025; the Vanuatu-flagged LUMA, which delivered similar cargoes to end users in Bangladesh and Pakistan since late 2025; and the OCEAN KOI, active in the fleet since at least 2020 and responsible for millions of barrels of high-sulfur fuel...