The United States government imposed sanctions on Iran's oil trade. President Donald Trump, in his second round of sanctions to the Islamic Republic, has asked that the crude oil exports be reduced “to zero.”
The United States sanctioned dozens of people and oil ships in China on Monday, the United Arab Emirates, India and other jurisdictions for allegedly helping to finance Iran and their support for militia groups that launch attacks against the United States and their allies.
The Department of Treasury and the State Department sanctioned more than 30 people and ships, including the directors of the National Petroleum Company of Iran and the company of Petroleum Terminals of Iran, for their role in the intermediation of the sale and Iranian oil transport.
Sanctioned ships transport raw valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Treasury Department.
This is the second round of sanctions imposed on Iranian oil sales since President Donald Trump issued the presidential memorandum of National Security 2, which urges the United States to “reduce Iran's oil exports to zero.” It also establishes that Iran “can never be allowed to acquire or develop nuclear weapons.”
At the time of the signing of the memorandum in February, Trump said from the Oval office that “we hope we don't have to use it a lot.”
“We will see if we can fix or negotiate an agreement with Iran,” said the president.
“We don't want to be hard with Iran. We don't want to be hard with anyone, ”Trump added. “But they simply can't have a nuclear bomb.”
Trump added that he has instructed his advisors to annihilate Iran if they kill him.
The Treasury Secretary Scott Besent said that the United States “will use all our tools available to aim all aspects of the Iranian oil supply chain, and anyone who tries with Iranian oil is exposed to a significant risk of sanctions” .
During his confirmation hearing, Besent criticized the policies of sanctions of the government of Joe Biden and asked that the United States have a more “muscular” sanctions regime and that it is more aggressive in the identification of Iranian and Russian entities and in oil.
A report of the United States Energy Information Administration of 2024 estimates that Iran generated 253,000 million dollars in oil revenue during the presidencies of Biden and Trump, between 2018 and 2024.
The spokeswoman of the State Department, Tammy Bruce, said in a statement that “while Iran dedicate their energy income to finance attacks against our allies, support terrorism throughout the world or pursue other destabilizing measures, we will use all the tools at our disposal to make the regime give accounts. ”