Aug. 22 (UPI) — The United States is targeting facilitators of Iran’s oil trade, as the Trump administration enforces its so-called maximum pressure campaign on the Tehran regime.
The sanctions were announced Thursday, targeting Greek national Antonios Margaritis and his network of international companies and their shipping vessels, as well as two Chinese port-terminal operators.
The Treasury said it sanctioned 49-year-old Antonios Margaritis, five of his companies based in the Marshall Islands and Hong Kong, as well as nearly a dozen tankers, on accusations of being involved in Iran’s shadow fleet shipping industry that facilitates the sale and transport of the Islamic nation’s oil.
Margaritis is accused of facilitating the transport of Iranian oil products for years.
The Treasury said it also blacklisted six other companies and a handful of vessels not connected to Margaritis but fulfilling a similar role for Tehran.
The two Chinese port-terminal operators — Qingdao Port Haiye Dongjiakou Oil Products and Yangshan Shengang International Petroleum Storage and Transportation — were blacklisted by the State Department, which accused them of facilitating the import of millions of barrels of Iranian-origin oil onboard multiple U.S.-designated tankers.
The move is the fourth time the State Department has targeted China-based terminal operators for their involvement in Iranian oil.
“Today, the United States is stemming the flow of revenue the Iranian Regime uses to fund its destabilizing activities, including its support for terrorism abroad and the oppression of its own people,” Tommy Piggott, principal deputy spokesperson at the State Department, said in a statement.
The sanctions are part of the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign that failed during his first term to bring Iran to the negotiating table on a new deal.
The punitive policy was initiated in 2018 after Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark multinational Obama-era accord aimed at preventing Iran from securing a nuclear weapon.
Trump ended the deal as he sought one of his own, employing the maximum pressure campaign to force Iran back to the negotiating table.
Instead, Iran advanced its nuclear program.
The previous Biden administration attempted to restart negotiations with Iran on reinstating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but those prospects ended when Iran-backed Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The new campaign, according to Trump’s Feb. 4 National Security Presidential Memorandum, seeks to “impose maximum pressure on the Iranian regime to end its nuclear threat, curtail its ballistic missile program and stop its support for terrorist groups.”