The Trump administration on Friday announced a new round of sanctions against the Iranian regime over its violent crackdown on peaceful protesters, this time targeting what officials described as a “shadow fleet" of vessels used to transport Iranian oil and petroleum products, reported CBS News.
According to the Treasury Department, the Office of Foreign Assets Control is sanctioning nine ships along with their owners and management companies. The administration says Iran has diverted “hundreds of millions of dollars" in oil sales to foreign countries to fund regional terrorist proxies and weapons programs.
The latest measures extend the administration’s economic pressure campaign as the Iranian regime continues its crackdown on citizens demanding basic freedoms.
“The Iranian regime is engaged in a situation of economic self-immolation - a process that has been accelerated by President Trump's maximum pressure campaign," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “Tehran's decision to support terrorists over its own people has caused Iran's currency and living conditions to be in free fall. Today's sanctions target a critical component of how Iran generates the funds used to repress its own people."
Last week, the Treasury Department sanctioned Iranian security officials it said were responsible for the crackdown.
The sanctions come amid speculation that President Donald Trump may order a strike on Iran due to its crackdown on anti-regime protesters.
On Thursday, Trump again issued a stark warning to Iran, during an in‑flight briefing with reporters on his return from Davos to Washington, describing a significant US military buildup in the region.
“We have a lot of ships going in that direction, just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction. And we'll see what happens," Trump said. “We have a big force going toward Iran. I'd rather not see anything happen, but we're watching them very closely."
Trump again said that he prevented hundreds of executions in Iran last week. “I stopped 837 hangings [last] Thursday. They would have been dead. Every one of them would have been hung. This is like from a thousand years ago," he said.
“I said ‘if you hang those people, you're going to be hit harder than you've ever been hit. It'll make what we did to your Iran nuclear look like peanuts.’ And an hour before this horrible thing was going to take place, they canceled it. And they actually said they canceled it. They didn't postpone it. They canceled it. So that was a good sign."
Despite the success in halting the executions, Trump emphasized that US military preparations continue. “But we have an armada, we have a massive fleet heading in that direction. And maybe we won't have to use it. We'll see."
On Wednesday, Trump commented on the recent tensions with Iran in an interview with CNBC and said, “We hope there’s not going to be further action. They were shooting people indiscriminately on the streets and they were going to hang 837, mostly young people" after he threatened to hit them hard if they harmed protesters.
Trump has also addressed the Iranian nuclear issue and said the country should quit seeking nuclear weapons. “They gotta stop with the nuclear."
A day earlier, Trump warned that the US would respond forcefully if Iran kills protesters or acts on assassination threats against him.
In an interview with NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich, Trump was asked about reports that Iranian authorities are still burning thousands of protesters alive and about the assassination threat against him over the weekend.
“Well, they shouldn't be doing it, but I've left notification: Anything ever happens, the whole country is going to get blown up," Trump said. “But I have very firm instructions: Anything happens, they're going to wipe them off the face of this earth."
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)