IRANIAN OIL SOLD AS IRAQI OIL.” WASHINGTON’S SANCTIONS AGAINST TEHRAN AFFECT BAGHDAD.
A report by the American Oil Price website revealed that the Trump administration has escalated its pressure on the Iranian regime after the strikes on its nuclear facilities, announcing new designations for more than 30 tankers, entities, and individuals, including the Iraqi Salim Ahmed Saeed, owner of the VS Oil Terminal oil terminal in the Khor al-Zubair port.
The report indicates that the goal of these pressures is to push Iran back to the negotiating table, but it also notes that Iraq will be directly affected by these sanctions, as they include companies and operators operating within it and may hinder international investment in oil, gas, and ports.
It also indicated that Trump’s strategy in Iraq takes two paths:
1.the first is to pressure Tehran to negotiate,
2.while the second is to pull Baghdad further west to counter Chinese and Russian influence in the region.
The Trump administration has ratcheted up its pressure on the Iranian regime, just weeks after striking Tehran’s nuclear facilities. Washington has intensified its so-called “maximum pressure” sanctions, announcing new designations targeting more than 30 tankers, entities, and individuals. Once again, Iran’s nuclear fleet faces mounting pressure from US sanctions, with no sign of relief in sight for the regime in Tehran. As Trump and his advisors have indicated, Iran must return to the negotiating table to discuss its future; otherwise, as Trump and Steve Witkoff have stated, sanctions relief is out of the question.
“As President Trump has made clear, Iran’s behavior has completely destroyed it,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant.
He added, “The Treasury Department will continue to target Tehran’s sources of revenue and intensify economic pressure on it to hinder the regime’s access to the financial resources that fuel its destabilizing activities.”
The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) stated on Thursday that the targeted networks transported “billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil.” The OFAC designations include a list of companies linked to Iraqi-British national Salim Ahmed Saeed, who is accused of “selling Iranian oil falsely labeled as Iraqi oil since at least 2020.”
