June 5 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday that it had imposed sanctions on a network of individuals, entities, and tankers smuggling Iranian-origin liquid petroleum gas disguised as Omani LPG to South and East Asia.
The Trump administration has been regularly adding Iran-linked sanctions to pressure Tehran even as the two sides engage in negotiations to resolve their conflict.
The latest targets include 12 entities, five of which are based in the Marshall Islands, four in the UAE, and one in China, according to details posted on the department’s website. Six LPG tankers were targeted, including four Panama-flagged vessels.
The Treasury Department, in a statement, alleged the network used front companies in the UAE and China, as well as foreign bank accounts, to move millions of barrels of Iranian LPG while concealing its origin to evade U.S. sanctions.
“Treasury will continue to sever Iran’s shadow fleet, shadow banking networks, and access to global trade,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement.
The department also imposed sanctions against Iranian exchange house Mehrdad Geramian Nik and Partners Co and its leadership, alleging they had moved hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign currency on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks.
(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones and Ismail Shakil;Editing by David Ljunggren)
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