The United States imposed sanctions on 13 companies and eight vessels over suspected ties to Iran, the Treasury Department said on Thursday, in the latest effort to stop Tehran's oil exports in violation of US sanctions.
The designations target Greek national Antonios Margaritis and his network of companies, including Marant Shipping and Trading, Square Tanker Management, Comford Management and United Chartering, which Washington said had facilitated Iranian petroleum shipments for years.
“Today’s action against Margaritis and his network degrades Tehran’s ability to fund its advanced weapons programs, support terrorist groups, and threaten the safety of our troops and our allies,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement.
"He (Antonios Margaritis) has most recently been involved in the operations of OFAC-sanctioned vessel MS ENOLA and MS ANGIA, which has carried Iranian oil," the Treasury said.
“Treasury remains determined to hold accountable all those who seek to aid the Iranian regime and threaten global security," he added.
The companies sanctioned on Thursday are based in Hong Kong, China, the United Arab Emirates and the Marshall Islands, according to the Treasury.
The Treasury accused Changbai Glory Shipping of moving more than four million barrels of Iranian oil to China on the LAFIT since March, Regal Liberty of delivering about two million barrels on the GIANT, and U Beacon Shipping of transporting over a million barrels on the ADELINE G.
It also accused Hong Kong Hangshun Shipping of shipping millions of barrels on the KONGM, and Ares Shipping of moving nearly ten million barrels on the ARES, often via ship-to-ship transfers with already sanctioned tankers.
UAE-based Ozarka Shipping was also sanctioned for managing vessels that transported Iranian petroleum products to China, while additional Hong Kong firms, including U Beacon Shipping, Hong Kong Hangshun Shipping and Ares Shipping, were sanctioned for their role in moving Iranian oil.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said Shamkhani, son of former national security chief Ali Shamkhani, had “facilitated and provided support to hostile activity by the Government of Iran, namely activity which is intended to cause the destabilization of the United Kingdom or any other country including Israel and Ukraine.”
"Iran’s reliance on revenues from trading networks and connected organisations enables it to carry out its destabilising activities, including supporting proxies and partners across the region and facilitating state threats on UK soil," read a statement. "Disrupting Iran’s malign influence and keeping the British people safe remains our number one priority."
Shamkhani, listed under multiple aliases including “Hector,” was among five new entries added to the UK Sanctions List, which freezes their assets and bars UK nationals and firms from doing business with them.
The companies designated were Admiral Shipping Group, Milavous Group, Ocean Leonid Investments, and Iran’s Petrochemical Commercial Company. Britain said some of the firms were acting on behalf of Shamkhani and had provided logistical and financial support for Iran’s destabilizing activities abroad.
The measures come weeks after Washington announced its largest Iran-related sanctions package since 2018, targeting what it described as Shamkhani’s “global shipping empire” that moved Iranian and Russian oil, generating billions of dollars.
The US Treasury accused the Shamkhani family of leveraging political influence to evade sanctions, using false identities, shell companies, and frequent vessel reflagging to conceal ownership.
“The Shamkhani family’s shipping empire highlights how the Iranian regime elites leverage their positions to accrue massive wealth and fund the regime’s dangerous behavior,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the time.
Ali Shamkhani, a former defense minister and longtime secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was sanctioned by the United States in 2020. He remains a senior adviser to Khamenei.
Speaking to the TRIGGERnometry podcast aired Wednesday evening, Netanyahu said: “President Trump has proven an exceptional, exceptional friend of Israel, an exceptional leader. And he did exactly the right action, the precise action using American power, and came in, I think, in a very forceful but judicious way."
Trump ordered strikes on three of Iran’s main nuclear sites, calling the program “obliterated,” but experts dispute that, saying bombs likely failed to penetrate underground halls, and with UN inspectors barred, the true damage is uncertain.
The long-time Israeli premier told the show that the war on Iran was a preemptive attack after years of threats to annihilate the Jewish state.
Israel launched surprise strikes on June 13 that killed senior Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists and damaged nuclear and air defense sites. Iran says 1,062 people were killed, including 786 military personnel and 276 civilians.
Netanyahu said, “I'll tell you the lessons we, the Jewish people, took from history. Number one is when somebody says they're going to annihilate you, take it seriously. Don't wait for them to do it, but prevent them, as we did in the remarkable action that we took against Iran, because they were developing nuclear weapons, and they were going to have 20,000 ballistic missiles, one tonne ballistic missiles... that would obliterate us."
Netanyahu said the October 7 attack was part of “the Iranian terror axis,” describing how Tehran built a network of proxies to annihilate Israel through a simultaneous assault: Hamas from the south, Hezbollah from the north, waves of ballistic missiles and rockets from Lebanon, Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, and even Iran itself.
He added that Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel came prematurely, disrupting Iran’s broader plan for a coordinated assault by all its regional allies.
“This was meant to be a simultaneous surprise attack that would hobble Israel and destroy it. I think what happened was that they [investigators] discovered that, basically Hamas fired too soon. They didn't coordinate," he added.
