The United States Treasury on Monday sanctioned three individuals and nine companies — most based in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates — for aiding Iran’s shipment of oil to China, in a fresh tightening of secondary sanctions days before President Donald Trump’s planned meeting with Xi Jinping, Ada Derana reported.
Four of the targeted companies are registered in Hong Kong, four in the UAE and one in Oman, the Treasury said. The action follows a separate round of sanctions on Friday targeting individuals and companies that helped Iran procure components for drones and ballistic missiles.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the latest designations were aimed at entities helping the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sell and ship its allotment of Iranian oil to China through a network of front companies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the administration would continue using sanctions to deprive Tehran of revenue for weapons, its nuclear programme and regional proxies.
The State Department also announced rewards of up to USD 15 million for information that disrupts the IRGC’s financial channels.
Specific companies named include Hong Kong Blue Ocean Ltd, Hong Kong Sanmu Ltd, Dubai-based Ocean Allianz Shipping LLC, Sharjah-based Atic Energy FZE, Oman-based Zeus Logistics Group, Hong Kong-based Jiandi HK Ltd, and Hong Kong-based Max Honor International. Treasury described the Hong Kong entities as cover companies arranging the sale and shipment of Iranian oil, with UAE-based firms facilitating shipments on five sanctioned shadow-fleet tankers in 2025. The action builds on July 2025 sanctions on Turkey-based Golden Globe, which Treasury said handles hundreds of millions of dollars in IRGC oil sales annually.
The new measures land days before Trump’s planned trip to China for a meeting with Xi Jinping, at which the US president is expected to press Beijing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resolve the Iran standoff. The Hormuz disruption continues to shape Sri Lanka’s oil import costs and fuel pricing, feeding into the Central Bank’s defence of the 2022 subsidy-removal reforms.
Source: Ada Derana — US issues new sanctions over Iran’s oil shipments to China.
