US hits 9 tankers with sanctions over Iranian oil during protest crackdown

Washington: The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on a fleet of nine ships and their owners accused of transporting hundreds of millions of dollars in forbidden Iranian oil to foreign markets.

The sanctions are being imposed because of Iran’s “shutdown of internet access to conceal its abuses” against its citizens during

its crackdown on nationwide protests, the US Treasury Department said.

They “target a critical component of how Iran generates the funds used to repress its own people,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

Iranians and Iranian businesses have been struggling under the longest and most comprehensive internet shutdown in the history of the Islamic Republic. The government blocked internet access on January 8 as nationwide protests led to a crackdown on information sharing.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said the nine targeted vessels — flagged from Palau, Panama and other jurisdictions — are part of a shadow fleet, a network of older tankers used to transport goods that are subject to international sanctions, notably from Russia and Iran.

The US sanctions aim to prevent the targeted Iranians from doing business with Americans or accessing US accounts. Friday’s action is part of an ongoing buildup of tensions between the US and the theocratic nation as an American aircraft carrier group inches closer to the Middle East.