US sanctions Iran's oil minister, upping ante in standoff
The US Treasury slapped sanctions on Iran's oil minister Mohsen Paknejad on Thursday, putting to one side its usual practice of sparing senior political figures and escalating Washington's standoff with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program.
“The Iranian regime continues to use the proceeds from the nation’s vast oil resources to advance its narrow, alarming self-interests at the expense of the Iranian people,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“Treasury will fight and disrupt any attempts by the regime to fund its destabilizing activities and further its dangerous agenda.”
US President Donald Trump reinstated his so-called maximum pressure campaign of sanctions on Iran last month in a bid to bring oil revenues upon which the state relies to zero and force Tehran to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.
The sanctions announced on Thursday also included entities in China and India the treasury accused of owning and operating vessels involved in the trade of Iranian oil - dubbed a "shadow fleet" by Washington.
Iran's oil ministry criticized the move and said it would circumvent US sanctions.
"The sanctions on Mohsen Paknejad are due to his extensive efforts to sell Iranian oil. He has repeatedly emphasized that Iranian oil exports will never stop and that the US policy of maximum pressure has failed," it said in a statement.
"In recent years, Iran has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to bypass sanctions and continues to sell its oil in international markets through various methods," it added.
The US treasury explained its targeting of Paknejad as a means of combatting Iran's security apparatus.
"Iran’s oil industry ... generates tens of billions of dollars annually for the regime."
"Under (Paknejad's) leadership, Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum has allocated billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil to the Iranian armed forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian Law Enforcement Forces, both critical instruments in the regime’s tools of oppression," it added.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards have tightened control over the country's oil industry and now manage up to half of exports, according to Reuters report late last year, funding its military capabilities and those of armed allies across the Middle East.
The US state department too announced sanctions on several Indonesia-based entities it says facilitate Iranian oil shipments.
Washington has been ramping up sanctions on Iran's oil exports since the latter days of the Joe Biden administration, pinching Iran's economy and deepening financial hardship for its people which could threaten unrest.
US competitor China, the world's top oil importer, is Iran's customer for over 90% of its oil exports and has continued to buy the supplies through a world-spanning network of traders and shell companies dodging US-led sanctions.
Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon but a United Nations watchdog said this month that its uranium enrichment levels had sharply risen to levels which in principle could be refined further into six atomic bombs.
Trump said last week that Iran must reach a nuclear agreement or face a military intervention, in comments lambasted by Iran's Supreme Leader as an attempt to bully and dominate Iran.
