US Treasury Sanctions Tankers in the Name of Helping Iranian Protestors
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on Friday, January 23, that it is increasing pressure on Iran by sanctioning nine additional tankers and their respective owners. In announcing the action, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it was going after Iran’s funding to increase pressure as the regime is killing peaceful protestors.
The announcement said the actions were to support the protestors, citing the crackdown by the Iranian regime and the shutdown of the Internet. Treasury asserted that the Iranian government is diverting the funds from the oil to fund regional terrorism, weapons programs, and security services instead of basic economic services for the Iranian people.
Critics, however, were quick to say the actions would do little to help the people of Iran who took to the streets weeks ago. Current estimates by human rights groups say that at least 3,100 people have been killed, with many estimates much higher.
Donald Trump, on January 3, first posted a warning saying that if Iran killed the protestors, the United States would come to their rescue. On January 13, he added in a social media posting that “Help Is On Its Way” and called on the people of Iran to “Take Over Your Institutions!!!” He later said he had stopped planned strikes after Iran canceled the execution of protestors and sought meetings with the U.S.
Treasury said today’s action was targeting vessels and their owners/managers that have collectively transported hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Iranian oil and petroleum products to foreign markets. The sanctions targeted one notorious vessel that the U.S. said has been in the trade going on six years, as well as ships registered in Palau, Comoros, and one in Panama. The front companies range from the Seychelles and Marshall Islands to Liberia, Oman, India, and the UAE.
Among the tankers sanctioned today is the Longevity 7, a 46,362-dwt product tanker, which the U.S. contends has been in the trade since 2020. Last registered in Palau, its flag is listed as unknown since October 2025, and Equasis lists the ship’s last inspection in March 2025 in Russia.
The U.S. says the vessels (Sea Bird, Avon, Al Diab II, Cesaria, Eastern Hero, Aqua Spirit, Chiron 5, and Keel) have been transporting LPG to Pakistan and Somalia, crude oil to East Asia, petrochemicals to East Asia, high sulfur oil, and naphtha.
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At the end of 2025, the well-known NGO UANI (United Against Nuclear Iran) reported that it had identified 83 new vessels engaged in smuggling Iranian oil, bringing the total number of tankers tracked to 560 vessels. Out of the 180 tankers sanctioned in 2025, it said 108 were previously identified by UANI.
Despite that, UANI calculated a 13.5 percent increase in the total number of barrels of Iranian oil exported in 2025. It said the exports topped 666 million barrels last year, with China by far and away taking most of the oil.
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