US Sanctions Individuals and Firms for Aiding Iran's Military and Oil Shipments
The United States has imposed sanctions on individuals and companies accused of aiding Iran's military and its oil exports, in actions announced by the Treasury and State departments on Friday and Monday.
The Friday measures targeted 10 individuals and companies, including several in China and Hong Kong, for helping Iran's military secure weapons and raw materials used to build Shahed-series drones and ballistic missiles, according to a Treasury Department press release. The sanctioned entities include Shanghai Yishuo International Trade Company, accused of helping Tehran purchase weapons, and Ningbo Hengda Insulation Materials Company, which the Treasury said supplied materials used in ballistic missile research and test launches. The legal representative of the latter, Li Genping, was also sanctioned.
The announcement comes days before President Donald Trump's planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, where he is expected to press Beijing to help resolve the standoff with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The Treasury said it remains prepared to take economic action against Iran's military to prevent it from rebuilding its production capacity and projecting power beyond its borders. It also said it would continue to act against foreign companies supporting illicit Iranian commerce and could impose secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions that facilitate such trade, including those tied to China's independent refineries.
On Monday, the U.S. government announced additional sanctions on three individuals and nine companies — including four in the United Arab Emirates and one in Oman — for aiding Iran's shipment of oil to China. The Treasury said the new designations by the Office of Foreign Assets Control targeted individuals and entities that helped the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps sell and ship its allotment of Iranian oil to China using a series of front companies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration would continue using sanctions to deprive the Iranian government and military of funding for weapons, its nuclear program, or support for proxies in the region.
“Treasury will continue to cut the Iranian regime off from the financial networks it uses to carry out terrorist acts and to destabilize the global economy,” Bessent said.
The State Department also announced a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Washington has designated as a terrorist organization, and its branches.
The Treasury said the IRGC relies on shell companies to arrange and receive payment for its allotment of Iranian oil shipments. Monday's action builds on sanctions imposed in July 2025 on Golden Globe, a Turkey-based company that Treasury said handled hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenues for the IRGC.