Iran oil trade: US slaps sanctions on 20 firms, including six Indians

WASHINGTON: United States has imposed sanctions on 20 companies including seven based in India for conducting oil trade with Iran.

The decision is part of Washington’s broader crackdown on entities involved in Iran oil trade. These companies facilitating the sale of Iran’s oil, the US State Department said in a statement on July 30.

“Iran utilizing the funds generated from oil trade for destabilization in Middle East,” state department said. India based companies have been involved in oil trade with Iran.

“The United States imposing sanction over 20 companies involved in Iranian oil and petrochemical products.”

Ten oil tanker companies, transporting Iranian oil also being sanctioned.

Other companies came under the US sanctions belong to Turkey, Indonesia and UAE.

Iran on Thursday described fresh US sanctions targeting its oil trade as malicious.

The US Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed restrictions on more than 115 individuals, companies and ships accused of facilitating the sale of Iranian oil.

These include a fleet allegedly operated by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of Ali Shamkhani, a top political advisor to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei called the sanctions “a malicious act aimed at undermining the economic development and welfare of the Iranian people”.

The US Treasury Department said Hossein Shamkhani operates a fleet of more than 50 tankers and container ships transporting Iranian and Russian oil and petroleum products, generating tens of billions of dollars in profit.

“The Shamkhani family’s shipping empire highlights how the Iranian regime elites leverage their positions to accrue massive wealth and fund the regime’s dangerous behavior,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Baqaei said the sanctions serve as “clear evidence of the enmity of American decision-makers toward Iranians”, describing them as a “a crime against humanity”.