The U.S. Treasury Secretary said the move targeted ships used by Iran to generate “finances to repress its own people.”
Published January 23, 2026
The United States has imposed a new set of Iran-related sanctions targeting the so-called “shadow fleet” that Iran uses to support oil exports.
In a statement Friday, U.S. officials directly linked the sanctions against the nine ships and their respective owners or managers to the government’s deadly crackdown on protesters.
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The ministry said the fleet “transported hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian oil and petroleum products in bulk to foreign markets.” Proceeds from these products are said to be diverted to fund “regional terrorist proxies, weapons programs, and security services.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that the actions “target a critical part of how Iran generates the funds to repress its own people.”
He added: “The Treasury Department will continue to track the tens of millions of dollars the regime has stolen and is desperately trying to transfer to banks outside of Iran.”
Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Tommy Piggott said the sanctions would limit Iran’s “ability to finance its oppression of the Iranian people and its malign acts internationally.”
Iranian state television reported that 3,117 people were killed in the crackdown on the demonstrations, which were initially sparked by shop owners protesting the high cost of living. They soon spread to a wider rebel group.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said 4,519 people were killed in the demonstrations, including 4,251 demonstrators, 197 security personnel, 35 people under the age of 18, and 38 bystanders who were neither demonstrators nor security personnel.
Iran has promised harsh punishments for hundreds of people arrested during the demonstrations.
Amid the unrest, US President Donald Trump threatened to attack Iran in response to the killings, but later retracted his threat as the protests appeared to subside. Nevertheless, President Trump said late Thursday that the United States was sending a large naval force to the region.
“We are watching Iran closely,” he told reporters.
On Friday, the UN Human Rights Council held an emergency session on Iran, with Turkish High Commissioner Volker calling on Tehran’s leaders to “end the brutal crackdown”.
Payam Akhawan, an Iranian-Canadian and former U.N. prosecutor, called the government killings “the worst mass murder in Iran’s modern history.”
The 47-member body then voted on a resolution to extend and expand the mandate of independent investigators to collect information on rights abuses in Iran, with 25 in favor, seven against, and the remainder abstaining.
Ali Bareini, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said the Iranian government “does not recognize the legitimacy or validity of this special session and the subsequent resolutions.”
