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The United States has announced more sanctions targeting entities and vessels involved in Iran’s oil and petrochemical trade.

Some shit you should know before you read: Since President Trump’s return to office, he has ramped up his “maximum pressure” campaign with weekly announcements targeting Iran’s economic lifelines. The renewed effort has zeroed in on individuals and entities tied to Iran’s oil and gas sector, which the US views as a primary funding source for Iran’s destabilizing activities. A recent high-profile case involved a UAE-based businessman, Jugwinder Singh Brar, who was sanctioned for operating a fleet of ships that covertly moved Iranian oil across international waters. According to the US Treasury, Brar’s shipping network facilitated illicit exports worth hundreds of millions of dollars, working with front companies and using falsified documentation to mask the oil’s Iranian origin and avoid detection. His designation is just one of many targets the US is going after in an effort to disrupt foreign intermediaries who enable Iran’s sanctioned energy trade.

What’s going on now: In a notable development, the US announced new sanctions targeting a wide network of entities and vessels allegedly involved in the trade and transport of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products. The State Department sanctioned seven entities—including four companies based in the United Arab Emirates, one in Türkiye, one in Iran, and a UAE-based marine transport firm—as well as two oil tankers.

The four UAE-based firms—Solvent Organics FZE, Alseeraf Trading L.L.C., Harold Trading L.L.C., and Shivnani Organics FZE—were accused of exporting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian-origin petrochemicals to third-party countries, including through transactions with previously sanctioned Iranian companies. Notably, Solvent Organics alone is said to have exported over $300 million, while Alseeraf Trading moved more than $150 million in illegal products.

Additionally, Iran-based Keyhan Sanjesh Azma, a cargo surveyor firm, was sanctioned for inspecting and certifying the loading of Iranian petroleum products on behalf of tankers linked to US-designated entities, thereby facilitating sanctions evasion.

In a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “So long as Iran attempts to generate oil and petrochemical revenues to fund its destabilizing activities, and support its terrorist activities and proxies, the United States will take steps to hold both Iran and all its partners engaged in sanctions evasion accountable.”

This comes just one day after the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a separate network of six entities and six individuals based in Iran and China, accusing them of procuring materials used in ballistic missile production for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). According to the Treasury, the network facilitated the transfer of key chemical components—sodium perchlorate and dioctyl sebacate—from China to Iran. These substances are critical for manufacturing solid rocket propellant, with sodium perchlorate being used to produce ammonium perchlorate, a primary oxidizer in missile fuel.

In a statement related to those sanctions, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “Iran’s aggressive development of missiles and other weapons capabilities imperils the safety of the United States and our partners. It also destabilizes the Middle East, and violates the global agreements intended to prevent the proliferation of these technologies. To achieve peace through strength, Treasury will continue to take all available measures to deprive Iran’s access to resources necessary to advance its missile program.”