The US Treasury Department announced on Friday the imposition of new sanctions targeting Iran, aimed at 10 individuals and 27 entities. The new sanctions focus on Iranian nationals as well as entities based in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong.
The move comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump seeks to negotiate a new nuclear agreement with Tehran.
The sanctions target individuals and entities connected to Iranian brothers Mansour, Nasser, and Fazlolah Zarringhalam, who, according to the US, laundered billions of dollars for the Iranian regime through a "shadow banking" network. This network enables the regime to bypass sanctions, funnel profits from oil and petroleum product sales, and fund its nuclear and missile programs as well as its terrorist organizations.
The Zarringhalam brothers allegedly operated a web of shell companies in coordination with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Defense Ministry, and the Central Bank of Iran, primarily via firms in Hong Kong and the UAE. The Treasury also issued updated guidance to financial institutions to help identify suspicious activity of this kind.
Assets and property belonging to those designated under the new sanctions have been frozen in the US, and all transactions with them have been banned.
As part of this latest step, the Treasury added two UAE-based firms, Ace Petrochem FZE and Moderate General Trading LLC, to its Specially Designated Nationals list. This designation freezes all their assets in the US.
According to the Treasury, both companies are tied to the Iranian government-owned National Iranian Tanker Company, already under US sanctions due to oil exports.
The new sanctions mark a continuation of Washington's policy of economic pressure on Iran, intended to strengthen its bargaining position ahead of potential nuclear negotiations.
