US sanctions oil network tied to Iranian tycoon Shamkhani

In a statement issued on Tuesday, President Javier Milei’s office said Argentina had added the IRGC to its public registry of individuals and entities linked to terrorism and its financing, a move that allows financial sanctions and operational restrictions.

“The National Government has declared the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization,” the statement said.

Argentina tied the decision directly to the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people and wounded more than 200, and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.

“The Republic of Argentina was the victim of two of the most serious terrorist attacks in history, perpetrated in the 1990s by the operational arm of the IRGC in the region, the Hezbollah organization,” the statement said.

It added that judicial investigations and intelligence work had found that both attacks were “planned, financed and executed with the direct participation of senior officials of the Iranian regime and operatives of the Revolutionary Guard.”

The announcement also renewed attention on Ahmad Vahidi, the IRGC chief commander and former Iranian defense minister, who has long been sought by Argentine authorities over the AMIA case.

Argentina said Interpol red notices had been issued for several Iranian citizens, “among them former Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who was recently appointed to lead the IRGC.”

The move goes beyond Argentina’s earlier designation of the Quds Force, the IRGC’s extraterritorial arm responsible for operations abroad.

A State Department cable earlier this month showed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had instructed US diplomats to press foreign governments to designate both groups as terrorist organizations.

Milei’s office cast the decision not only as a security measure, but as a moral and political one.

“The President Javier Milei hopes that this decision will settle a historic debt of more than 30 years with the families of the victims,” the statement said.

It added that his government remained committed to “recognizing terrorists for what they are.”

Milei’s statement ended in broader ideological terms, saying the government was determined to align Argentina with “Western civilization” while confronting those “who want to destroy it.”

In response to Operation Epic Fury, Tehran turned to asymmetric leverage, relying on its capacity to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and drive up global oil prices.

Anticipating market volatility, the US Treasury issued a targeted sanctions waiver designed to stabilize oil markets while preserving financial pressure on Tehran.

Yet as the waiver framework evolved from an India-specific mechanism into a more generalized policy, it continued in practice to serve Indian refiners, redirecting sanctioned crude away from China and toward India.

The Russian test case

On March 5, Treasury issued a waiver allowing Indian refiners — IOC, BPCL, HPCL, and Reliance Industries — to purchase already-produced Russian crude cargoes that were on the water.

When Treasury expanded the waiver on March 12–13, Indian refiners remained the only significant buyers of the authorized Russian barrels. The expansion continued to apply only to cargoes already on the water, did not restore formal banking channels, and did not lift underlying sanctions.

Miad Maleki, a former US Treasury official, described General License U as authorizing “the commodity transaction; it says nothing about payment.” The license permits the sale of oil but does not restore banking access or create a formal payment channel. That distinction allowed trade in physical barrels while preserving financial pressure.

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  India tells US it needs Iran, Venezuela crude to offset Russian cuts

The Iranian extension

The March 20 application of the same waiver model to roughly 170 million barrels of Iranian crude floating offshore replicated the policy — and once again, India remained the only swing buyer.

Reliance Industries, the largest Indian public company, purchased 5 million barrels of Iranian crude at a $7 premium to Brent. The same Indian refiners, IOC, BPCL, and HPCL, reportedly plan to resume purchases.

Homayoun Falakshahi, head of crude oil analysis at Kpler, said Iranian crude often remains unsold until reaching Asian discharge zones such as Singapore or Malaysia. Because many cargoes were already produced but waiting for buyers, releasing them under the waiver had immediate supply effects. He added: “Now that India has entered as a competitor, the price in China will most likely increase.”

In effect, India’s participation disrupted China’s near-monopsony over sanctioned Iranian crude — reshaping pricing leverage without formally lifting sanctions.

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  Iran still depends on Hormuz despite years of workarounds

Before 2019, Indian refiners imported roughly 450,000 barrels per day of Iranian crude under contracts with National Iranian Oil Company. They retain the technical configuration and commercial familiarity to scale quickly within short waiver windows. That institutional memory gives Washington a ready-made alternative buyer base whenever it chooses to recalibrate supply pressure.

India’s strategic ascent

India’s admission into the Pax Silica, formalized on February 20, placed it within the US-led supply-chain initiative focused on reducing dependence on China in semiconductor and AI production. As Under Secretary Jacob Helberg said: "Pax Silica is really not about China, it is about America. We want to secure our supply chains. We view India as a partner to help de-risk and diversify those supply chains."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel on February 25–26, where the two countries elevated ties to a “special strategic partnership.” Two days later, Operation Epic Fury began.

The new world order

Early in President Trump’s second term, Washington sought to reshape the global order. India was expected to become a counterweight to China, and Iran was given a chance for realignment. Neither objective materialized at the outset. India’s role remained limited, negotiations with Iran collapsed, and a 12-day war followed. Trade and tariff disputes further complicated the restructuring effort.

Washington’s tactical support of India’s energy role may carry implications beyond temporary oil supply management. Pax Silica realigns industrial supply chains; the waiver framework redirects sanctioned energy flows. Together, they position India within the technological and commodity axes of great-power competition.

This suggests a second, more structured attempt to reshape the global order. With India onboard, the decisive variable becomes whether Operation Epic Fury generates sufficient leverage to push Iran away from its long-standing partnerships with Beijing and Moscow. A realignment toward Washington could be the tipping point in the consolidation of this new order.

The vessels – the Shabdis and the Barzin – are operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), a state-owned carrier under sanctions by the United States, Britain and the European Union. Washington has accused IRISL of transporting materials used in Iran’s ballistic missile program.

The ships recently docked at Gaolan port in Zhuhai on China’s southeastern coast, a facility experts say handles large volumes of industrial chemicals, including sodium perchlorate, a key precursor used to produce solid rocket fuel.

Experts tracking the vessels said the cargo likely includes sodium perchlorate, which Iran requires for missile propellants.

“Given the track record, the most parsimonious explanation is that they’re loading the same commodity they’ve been shuttling for the past year-plus,” Isaac Kardon, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said.

Kardon said Beijing could have delayed the ships’ departure using administrative or customs procedures but did not do so.

“China could have held these vessels at port, imposed an administrative delay, invented a customs hold – any number of bureaucratic tools, but didn’t,” he said, calling the decision notable at a time when the United States and Iran are engaged in direct military confrontation.

As of Saturday, both ships were in the South China Sea. The Barzin had anchored off the coast of Malaysia while en route to Iran’s Bandar Abbas port, about 4,000 miles away, where it is expected to arrive next week. The Shabdis is sailing toward Iran’s Chabahar port, with an estimated arrival of March 16.

Both destinations lie along the Strait of Hormuz and host major Iranian naval facilities.

US sanctions announced last year targeted the transfer of sodium perchlorate and other chemicals from China to Iran, citing their use in solid propellants for ballistic missiles. Sodium perchlorate is used to produce ammonium perchlorate, a core component in missile fuel.

U.S. officials have long accused China of allowing transfers of missile-related materials to Iran, allegations Beijing has denied, saying the United States exaggerates commercial or dual-use trade.

Since the start of the year, at least a dozen other IRISL vessels have visited Gaolan port, with draft data suggesting most departed carrying cargo. Some of those ships later unloaded at Iran’s Shahid Rajaee port near Bandar Abbas, the country’s main container terminal.

The latest departures come days after US and Israeli strikes targeted Iranian missile facilities and other military infrastructure.

Analysts say that damage may have increased Iran’s need for rocket fuel components.

“Tehran’s need for propellant precursors just went from urgent to existential,” Kardon said.

The report said the companies, Zedcex and Zedxion, listed a supposed director and person with significant control named “Elizabeth Newman,” but investigators found no passport records, migration history or other evidence that such a person exists.

Promotional materials for the exchanges used stock video footage labeled “Pretty black woman talking to camera” from Shutterstock to portray the fictitious executive, while other “team members” also appeared to be generic stock clips.

The companies were able to register in Britain because, until recently, Companies House required no identity verification for corporate filings.

OCCRP’s investigation also linked the exchanges to Iranian tycoon Babak Morteza Zanjani, who was sentenced to death in 2016 for embezzling oil revenues but whose sentence was commuted in 2024.

Zanjani briefly appeared as a director of Zedxion, the report said, and his name remains embedded in the metadata of the exchange’s white paper. A YouTube video also shows him promoting Zedcex.

Despite filing as dormant companies in Britain, the two exchanges processed roughly $94 billion in transactions, OCCRP reported.

Investigators traced more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency flows connected to entities linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to the report and blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs.

That included more than $10 million sent to a Yemeni financier accused of supporting Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, the report said.

A key link between the network and Zanjani emerged through social media posts by his partner, Solmaz Bani—also known as Niyoosha or Sara Bani—a former model whom investigators say registered newsletter domains connected to the exchanges and appeared in login data tied to their operations.

According to the investigation, images shared by Zedxion’s Telegram channel in May 2024 showed a white cat with grey-brown markings and a distinctive purple bell collar.

A nearly identical cat, wearing the same collar, appeared in photographs posted on Bani’s now-deleted Facebook account in February 2025.

Investigators also said distinctive furniture seen in Zanjani’s social media posts matched items appearing in photographs linked to the exchange network.

The report said the scheme may have helped finance activities linked to the Revolutionary Guard, including repression during protests in Iran in January 2026 triggered by inflation and currency collapse.

The US Treasury sanctioned Zanjani on January 30, 2026. Britain has also sanctioned him, though the exchanges themselves have not been targeted.

New identity-verification requirements for Companies House filings are due to take effect in May 2026.

Zanjani dismissed the US accusations on social media platform X, calling them “merely a pretext for seizing 660 million Tether and extortion.”

The exchanges and Bani did not respond to requests for comment, according to the investigation.

The Treasury Department said the measures target networks involved in Iranian oil exports as well as procurement channels supporting the country’s ballistic missile and advanced conventional weapons programs.

“Iran exploits financial systems to sell illicit oil, launder the proceeds, procure components for its nuclear and conventional weapons programs, and support its terrorist proxies,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

“Under President Trump’s strong leadership, Treasury will continue to put maximum pressure on Iran to target the regime’s weapons capabilities and support for terrorism, which it has prioritized over the lives of the Iranian people.”

A significant portion of the designations focused on vessels operating in Iran’s so-called “shadow fleet,” which US officials say transports sanctioned petroleum to foreign markets.

Among them was the Panama-flagged HOOT, accused of shipping Iranian liquefied petroleum gas to Bangladesh in 2025, and the Barbados-flagged OCEAN KOI, which Treasury said has carried millions of barrels of Iranian fuel oil and condensate over the past year.

Treasury also designated individuals tied to Iran’s drone and missile infrastructure.

Mohammad Abedini and Mehdi Zand, employees of Qods Aviation Industries, were sanctioned for allegedly providing technical support in Russia for Iranian-designed Mohajer-series unmanned aerial vehicles.

Two other Qods Aviation employees—Mehrdad Jafari and Ebrahim Shariatzadeh—were cited for supporting UAV activities abroad, including in Venezuela.

In addition, companies in Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates were targeted for allegedly facilitating payments and procurement of sensitive machinery and missile precursor chemicals for entities linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ aerospace arm.

The sanctions were imposed under multiple executive orders related to Iran’s energy sector and weapons proliferation, and form part of what the administration describes as a continuing campaign of maximum pressure.

The action comes as negotiators prepare to meet in Geneva on Thursday for what officials on both sides have described as a potentially pivotal round of discussions, amid reports that Washington has set informal timelines for progress.