US issues fresh Iran-related sanctions

The US issued new Iran-related sanctions on Friday targeting a key financier for Iran's new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei and 13 other individuals and entities, following Tehran's resumed attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the Treasury Department said.

The sanctions took aim at Ali Ansari, an Iranian banker and businessman based in Dubai who had previously been sanctioned by Britain for his role in financially supporting the activities of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and other entities, Treasury said.

Treasury said Ansari had diverted publicly funded wealth into an extensive overseas portfolio of real estate and commercial holdings to enrich himself, government elites, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also targeted three Iran-based exchange houses and foreign "front companies" that it said moved billions of dollars annually on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks, using layers of shell companies to obscure the government's illicit activity.

"The United States is taking decisive action to cut off the financial lifelines sustaining Iran's ruling elite," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement. "By targeting these networks, the United States is directly disrupting the regime's ability to access foreign currency and conduct international financial activity."