The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions against 12 individuals and entities accused of facilitating Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (quir) sales and shipments of Iranian oil to China, as Washington intensifies its “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
In a statement issued on May 11, the Treasury Department said the measures are aimed at disrupting Iran’s ability to generate, move and repatriate funds used to support its weapons programmes, terrorist proxies and nuclear ambitions.
“As the Iranian military desperately tries to regroup, economic fury will continue to deprive the regime of funding for its weapons programmes, terrorist proxies and nuclear ambitions,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
Bessent added that the Treasury Department “will continue to cut off the Iranian regime from the financial networks it uses to carry out terrorist attacks and destabilise the global economy.”
Meanwhile, Australia on May 12 announced new targeted financial sanctions and travel bans against Iranian individuals and organisations over what it called the regime’s continued brutal oppression of its people and destabilisation of regional activities.
“The seven individuals and four organisations sanctioned today include senior officials and organisations involved in these horrific acts, including violence against women and children,” the Australian government said in a statement released on May 12.
The move came at the same time as new sanctions imposed by Britain targeting organisations and individuals accused of facilitating Iran’s hostile activities and overseas criminal operations.
The UK Foreign Office said the measures were in response to Iran’s actions against “global security and its use of criminal groups to carry out threats overseas”.
“Criminal facilitators who are supported by parts of the Iranian regime and who threaten security in the UK and Europe will not be tolerated, nor will illicit financial networks,” UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said.
The UK has already imposed more than 550 sanctions against Iranian individuals and organisations, including the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (quir), and more than 90 sanctions in response to human rights abuses.