The US government has accused Tehran and Caracas of “reckless proliferation of deadly weapons” amid rising tensions.
Published December 30, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States has imposed sanctions on a Venezuelan company over accusations it helped acquire Iranian-designed drones, amid heightened tensions in Washington with both Iran and Caracas.
Tuesday’s penalties targeted Empresa Aeronautica Nacional SA (EANSA), a Venezuelan company that the U.S. Treasury Department said “supervises the maintenance and assembly” of drones for Iran’s Quds Aviation Industries, which is already under U.S. government sanctions.
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The ministry also sanctioned the company’s chairman, José Jesús Urdaneta González, for coordinating “with members and representatives of the Venezuelan and Iranian armed forces regarding the production of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) in Venezuela.”
“The Treasury Department is holding Iran and Venezuela accountable for their aggressive and reckless proliferation of deadly weapons around the world,” Treasury official John Hurley said in a statement.
“We will continue to take swift action to deprive those who enable Iran’s military-industrial complex of access to the U.S. financial system,” he said. Under these sanctions, the assets of targeted companies and individuals in the United States are frozen, and it is generally illegal for American citizens to engage in financial transactions with these companies or individuals.
The US claimed in a statement that Iran and Caracas have been coordinating the “delivery” of drones to Venezuela since 2006.
Iran’s Ministry of Defense Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) has been under US sanctions since 2020 for its role in both arms sales and procurement. The United States is by far the world’s largest arms exporter.
The U.S. Treasury also imposed new sanctions on several Iranian individuals on Tuesday due to ties to Iran’s arms industry.
The move came a day after President Donald Trump threatened further attacks against Iran if it rebuilds its missile capabilities and nuclear program.
The United States joined Israel in attacking Iran in June, bombing three of the country’s main nuclear facilities before a ceasefire ended a 12-day escalation.
“Now we’re hearing that Iran is trying to rise again, and if that’s the case, we’re going to have to defeat Iran,” Trump said Monday at a joint news conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We’re going to beat them. We’re going to beat the hell out of them. But hopefully that doesn’t happen.”
Iran quickly responded to President Trump’s threat.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s response to any repressive aggression is severe and regrettable,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a social media post.
The Trump administration has also taken a confrontational approach toward Venezuela.
The President of the United States announced this week that the United States had “raided” a dock in a Latin American country that was used to load drug ships. The details of the strike remain unclear.
President Trump and some aides have falsely suggested that Venezuela’s oil belongs to the United States. The US government has also accused, without evidence, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of leading a drug trafficking organization.
The Trump administration has also carried out simultaneous attacks on suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean, operations that many legal experts say violate U.S. and international law and amount to extrajudicial killings.
The United States has seized at least two oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela over the past month after President Trump announced a naval blockade of the country.
Venezuela rejected the US move as “piracy” and accused the Trump administration of seeking to overthrow Maduro’s government.
