“Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating one individual and eight entities, and identifying one vessel as blocked property, for their involvement in the procurement and transshipment of sensitive machinery for Iran’s defense industry,” the Treasury said in a statement.
It identified the vessel as “Hong Kong-based Unico Shipping Co Ltd,” which it said was carrying machinery for an Iranian company.
“The United States remains resolved to disrupt any effort by Iran to procure the sensitive, dual-use technology, components, and machinery that underpin the regime’s ballistic missile, unmanned aerial vehicle, and asymmetric weapons programs. We have been clear: those who enable these schemes will be held accountable,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Several of the sanctioned entities are China-based. One is a Turkey-based company that was sanctioned for an alleged shipment to a subsidiary of an Iranian company.
Israel’s attack last Friday on Iranian nuclear sites and scientists and its military leadership ended indirect talks between Tehran and Washington about Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions relief.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that in two weeks he would make a decision on whether the US will become directly involved in the conflict, adding that there is “a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future.”
Trump had suggested on Monday that Iran may be open to negotiations, but Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei dismissed the possibility, saying that Israeli attacks have “practically emptied the diplomatic process and negotiations of meaning and substance.”
Iran’s foreign minister is in Geneva on Friday for talks with his French, German, and British counterparts.
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