On July 3, 2025, the United States of America announced the imposition of new sanctions targeting a network involved in smuggling Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil, as well as a financial institution controlled by Hezbollah. This information was released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, reports Reuters.
According to data from the U.S. Treasury, a network of companies led by Iraqi-British citizen Salim Ahmed Said has been purchasing and transporting Iranian oil worth billions of dollars since 2020, disguising it as Iraqi oil or mixing it with Iraqi oil.
“The Treasury Department will continue to target Tehran’s sources of revenue and increase economic pressure to deny the regime access to financial resources that fuel its destabilizing activities.”
According to the U.S. Treasury, companies and tankers linked to Said mix Iranian oil with Iraqi oil and then sell it to Western buyers through Iraq or the United Arab Emirates, using forged documents to evade sanctions.
Salim Ahmed Said controls the company VS Tankers, registered in the UAE, although he formally avoids ties to it. Previously, this company was known as Al-Iraqia Shipping Services & Oil Trading (AISSOT) and was involved in smuggling oil on behalf of the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.
The sanctions include freezing the assets of individuals and companies subject to restrictions in the U.S., as well as prohibiting Americans from engaging in any transactions with them.
VS Tankers denied the Treasury Department’s allegations and stated that it “will take all necessary legal steps to protect its interests.” The Iranian mission in New York has not yet provided any comments.
Additionally, the U.S. imposed sanctions on several vessels that, according to their data, participated in covert shipments of Iranian oil, increasing pressure on Iran’s so-called “shadow fleet.”
The U.S. Treasury also sanctioned several high-ranking officials and one organization linked to the financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan, controlled by Hezbollah. According to the agency, these officials conducted financial operations worth millions of dollars that benefited Hezbollah while concealing its involvement.
The U.S. has repeatedly imposed sanctions on Iranian oil exports due to Iran’s nuclear program and its funding of militant groups in the Middle East. The new restrictions introduced on July 3 followed U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, including the uranium enrichment plant in Fordow, on June 22.
On the night of June 22, U.S. aviation attacked nuclear sites in Iran – in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. At that time, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the main goal of the operation was to eliminate the nuclear threat from Iran and that the targeted sites “were completely destroyed.” He also warned that if Tehran did not take peaceful steps, future strikes would be “much larger in scale.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed gratitude to Trump for the strikes. Meanwhile, Hassan Abedini, deputy political director of Iranian state television, reported that Iran had evacuated all three nuclear sites targeted by the U.S. in advance.
Earlier, on June 19, the White House announced that Trump would decide on strikes against Iran within two weeks, depending on negotiations with Iran regarding its nuclear program. The sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan were among the targets previously attacked by Israel since the start of strikes on Iran on June 13, 2025.
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