US issues fresh Iran-related sanctions as conflict flares
By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) – The United States issued new Iran-related sanctions on Friday targeting a key financier of Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and 13 other individuals and entities, the Treasury Department said, following Tehran’s renewed attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Treasury Department said the sanctions targeted Ali Ansari, an Iranian banker and businessman living in Dubai who was previously sanctioned by Britain for his role in financially supporting the activities of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and other organisations.
The Treasury Department said Ansari diverted his publicly financed wealth into a vast portfolio of overseas real estate and business assets to enrich himself, government elites and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also targeted three Iran-based foreign exchange and foreign “shell companies” that the government says transfer billions of dollars annually on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks, using layers of shell companies to hide their illicit activities.
“The United States is taking decisive action to cut off the financial lifelines that keep Iran’s ruling elite afloat,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement. he said. “By targeting these networks, the United States directly disrupts the regime’s ability to access foreign currency and conduct international financial activity.”
The Treasury announced the sanctions on a relatively calm day after renewed fighting in which three Qatari and Saudi commercial tankers came under Iranian fire, prompting the US to strike Iranian sites and Iran to respond with attacks on US military facilities in the Gulf states.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the ceasefire reached with Iran has ended, but that Washington has agreed to continue negotiations at Iran’s request.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that the department “will continue to use every tool at its disposal” to isolate Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials from the global financial system.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said earlier Saturday that Bessent had violated Article 9 of the memorandum of understanding, calling it “a violation that follows other violations and missteps by the United States.”
“Reality check: There can only be mutual harmony,” Araqchi said in a post on channel X, adding that Iran “has kept its word so far.”
Iran has said it is ready for “all-out defense” if the United States violates the memorandum of understanding agreed last month. The group’s chief negotiator, Mohammed Baqir Qalibaf, vowed on Telegram that the war would never end with Tehran’s surrender.
Brett Erickson, managing director of Obsidian Risk Advisors, said the new sanctions send a clear message to Tehran. “Washington is no longer trying to save the current framework. It is preparing to completely replace it,” he said.
Washington agreed that it “will not impose new sanctions or deploy additional forces to the region” in accordance with Article 9 of the US-Iran agreement.
The Treasury said Ansari was the owner and manager of the formerly US-sanctioned Ayandeh Bank, which is now bankrupt and closed in mid-October 2025 on the orders of the Iranian government.
Ansari reportedly used multiple shell companies and bank accounts in multiple jurisdictions to amass assets worth millions of dollars under Saint Kitts and Nevis-based Smart Global Limited, a holding company founded in 2011 that invests in real estate and commercial properties in Europe, the Gulf and other regions.
“While held on behalf of Ansari, most of these financial interests are ultimately held for the financial interests of Mojtaba Khamenei, his family, other Iranian elites in the regime, and the IRGC, which has protected Ansari from facing punishment despite his blatant corruption and the serious damage he has inflicted on the Iranian economy and people,” the Treasury Department said.
OFAC also announced measures against Iranian citizens involved in the three exchange houses, as well as Hong Kong-based CDM Trading Limited and United Arab Emirates-based Naba Alzaki Raw Materials Trading LLC, which it said conducted financial transactions for these exchange houses.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Additional reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones and Menna Alaa El-Din; Writing by Christian Martinez; Editing by Katharine Jackson, Nia Williams, Sanjeev Miglani and Tom Hogue)
