President Donald Trump re-imposed a maximum pressure
policy on Iran in February that includes efforts to drive its oil exports to
zero in order to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and funding
militant groups.
It was alleged that Paknejad oversees the export of tens of
billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil and has allocated billions of dollars’
worth of oil to Iran’s armed forces for export.
“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,” Treasury Secretary 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.”
Treasury also designated owners or operators of vessels that
have delivered Iranian oil to China or lifted it from storage there, it said.
Those were in multiple jurisdictions, including India and China, it said.
Iran's military relies on a vast shadow fleet of ships to
disguise shipments of oil worth billions of dollars to China.
Thursday's
designated vessels include the Hong Kong-flagged Peace Hill and its owner Hong
Kong Heshun Transportation Trading Limited, the Iran-flagged Polaris 1, the
Seychelles-registered Fallon Shipping Company Ltd, and the Liberia-registered
Itaugua Services Inc.
It also designated the Panama-flagged Corona Fun, which it
said has manipulated automatic identification systems to disguise efforts to
ship Iranian oil, and the San Marino-flagged Seasky, for transporting fuel oil
on behalf of Iran's national oil company to China.
The sanctions block US assets of the designated entities and
prohibit Americans from engaging in any transactions with them.
The US Department of State is designating three entities and
three vessels as blocked property, it said.
