US Reportedly Confiscates Iranian Oil Cargo On Tanker

A State Department spokesperson told Iran International’s Samira Gharaei Friday that the US Treasury Department updated its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN list), marking the change in the status of these vessels.

“This SDN list update reflects the strong and long-standing partnership between the United States and Panama on respect for US sanctions in the maritime context.

We routinely work with Panama and other countries to ensure that their shipping registries are not abused by entities seeking to circumvent US sanctions on Iran.

Consistent with Panama’s domestic laws and international commitments, they have de-flagged hundreds of vessels since 2019,” the spokesperson said.

The US has designated hundreds of Iranian and other individuals, companies and vessels for suspected links to Tehran’s support for terror activities or assistance in Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.

There are also US sanctions on sectors of Iran’s economy as well as weapons programs. Many have also been designated for violating these US sanctions.

In most instances, US sanctions are also third-party sanctions, meaning any individual or entity breaking the rules will be separately be designated.

“We will continue to work with partners like Panama to ensure their registries and jurisdictions are not abused by entities attempting to evade our sanctions on Iran,” the State Department said.

Sekhavat Asadi, the general manager of special Pars energy region on the Persian Gulf, including many natural gas and petrochemical operation told the official government IRNA news agency that striking workers “will be replaced by 4,000 new workers.” He added that the process already started on Thursday.

Workers in more than 80 companies, including steel workers, across the country joined industrial action, protesting poor working conditions, low wages and rising costs of living, the Council for Organizing Oil Contract-Workers' Protests said April 25.

In recent years, as the Iranian National Oil Company has ceded many operations to quasi-private companies, most of the work is done by temporary contract workers with little pay and no benefits.

The so-called private companies are controlled by military or other state entities, or by well-connected regime insiders who quash labor demands by using government security forces.

Asadi claimed that the strikes are being organized by anti-regime groups, a charge the Islamic Republic often makes to de-legitimize the demands of the workers who earn less than $200 a month.

At the same time he also claimed that “We had no strikes and protests in the petrochemical and gas sectors in recent days and all plants are working with full capacity.”

However, various reports by local media and labor groups indicate widespread strikes in the region.

Workers are demanding a 79-percent pay increase, on-time payment of wages and living amenities.

Six democrats and six republicans, led by Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), told Biden that the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office has not been able to seize Iranian shipments for more than a year.

The DHS program that used to seize illegal Iranian oil, gas and petrochemical shipments had confiscated $228 million worth of fuel linked to the Revolutionary Guards’ extraterritorial Quds Force -- a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization and an arm of the Islamic Republic that continues to sponsor attacks on US citizens and servicemembers -- from 2019 until fiscal year 2022, when the Treasury cut off its funds. HSI's enforcement has been curtailed by policy limitations within the Department of Treasury's Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture.

Referring to the Treasury Department’s acknowledgment in 2020 that “Iranian petrochemical sales remain a key revenue source for the Iranian regime,” specifically the IRGC’s Quds Force, the senators called for bridging the enforcement gaps concerning Iranian petrochemical and petroleum sales. “Enforcement of sanctions against Iranian petrochemical and petroleum sales will defund terrorists' intent on harming the United States and our partners,” read the letter.

“Despite several additional sanctions issued against Iranian petrochemical and petroleum sales over the past year, the volume of Iranian oil exports from Iran from 2021 to 2022 increased by 35%, approximately 430 million barrels of oil, evading sanctions,” they said in the letter.

A few hours after the letter was released, Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Oman, the latest in a series of seizures or attacks on commercial vessels. "While Iran is seizing ships, our own program is completely languishing," an aide to Ernst told Reuters.

The sanctions also targeted four senior commanders within IRGC's Intelligence Organization, although among them were at least one individual who had been already subject to previous US sanctions.

President Joe Biden issued a statement taking credit for “first-ever sanctions against actors for engaging in the wrongful detention of Americans.”

Although the sanctions targeting financial activities of the designees are more of a symbolic punishment, it does show Biden’s determination to maintain measured pressure against the Islamic Republic.

The Russian domestic security service, FSB, which was targeted because officials said it was involved in the detention of at least one US citizen whose name was not disclosed, was also subject to previous US sanctions.

Speaking to reporters in a briefing call on the condition of anonymity, senior Biden administration officials said Thursday's move aimed to show that there would be consequences for those who tried to use US citizens for political leverage or seek concessions from Washington.

"Our actions are a clear and direct warning to those around the world who wrongfully detain U.S. nationals of the potential consequences of their actions," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

The move, the US officials said, aimed to promote accountability, and by doing so prevent and deter further politically motivated detentions of Americans abroad. He added Thursday's sanctions were just the beginning and that there was possibly more to come.

Russia and Iran, two U.S. adversaries, hold a number of American citizens in their prisons, detentions Washington says are wrongful and politically charged.

Iran has been taking Americans hostage since the early days of its Islamic government 44 years ago, with the famous case of extremists occupying the US embassy in 1979 and keeping dozens of American staff hostage for 444 days.

While the Biden administration does not use the word “hostages” to describe Iran’s detention of Americans, international human rights experts and organizations describe Iran’s policy as hostage taking.

However, in his statement Thursday, the President did use the word. “Today – and every day – our message to Russia, Iran, and the world is holding hostage or wrongfully detaining Americans is unacceptable. Release them immediately.”

In one, Washington has secured the release of US basketball star Brittney Griner who was held in Russia on drug charges, by commuting the sentence of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

The plight of Americans detained by foreign governments has moved into the spotlight with Griner's case. Although the US government does not provide figures, there are more than 60 such detainees, according to the James Foley Foundation, named after an American journalist abducted and killed in Syria.

Iranian government media barely made a mention of the US designations on Friday, and so far, no official has reacted.

With reporting by Reuters

Iran’s exiled prince Reza Pahlavi, who is on a visit to Italy to galvanize support for the Iranian uprising, visited the Vatican on the second day of his stay on Thursday. 

Earlier in the day, Pahlavi and his wife Yasmine also held a friendly meeting with a group of Iranians residing in Italy before taking a few minutes of their time to meet Elaheh Tavakolian, a PhD student who lost one of her eyes to shotgun pellets fired at protesters by the Islamic Republic’s security forces. She is in Italy to receive treatment for her eye.

Wherever the Pahlavis went during their first two days in Italy, they were welcomed by a large Iranian crowd who had gathered to meet the prince. The moment he arrived at the Italian parliament, he was greeted by Iranians who were chanting slogans in support of “King Reza Pahlavi,” saying that they would bring him back to Iran. 

There, he spoke to people about their role in supporting the protests, calling on them to be the voice of the people who are suffering under the regime and do not enjoy the freedom and access to the free world to make their voices heard. “You are the voice of the future,” he told the crowd. 

Your unison and unanimity not only invigorate our compatriots inside the country -- the ones in the Evin prison, or the ones who have lost their eyesight to regime’s bullets, or the schoolgirls who are attacked by chemical gas – but also result in the world hearing your voice,” he said. 

Pahlavi highlighted that the world countries have realized that they should not limit their interactions to the regime, which does not represent the Iranian people. "If I have come here today to talk to the representatives of the governments, it is to make your voice heard and to say that investing in the people of Iran means guaranteeing democracy and freedom in the future and ending the threats of the Islamic Republic," he said. 

During the meeting with the Iranian expatriates Thursday, Pahlavi talked about the transition to the future Iran free of the Islamic Republic, noting that after the collapse of the regime something similar to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission would be needed to deal with the crimes committed by regime officials. The commision was established by the new South African government in 1995 to help heal the country and bring about a reconciliation of its people by uncovering the truth about human rights violations that had occurred during the period of apartheid.

On Wednesday, Pahlavi also held a meeting with Senator Stefania Craxi, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, where he also held a presser following his talks with several other Italian parliamentarians.

During the Wednesday press conference, the leading opposition figure reiterated his call on world countries to support the uprising of the Iranians, saying, “We all recognize that sanctions are perhaps to some great extent able to weaken such regimes and limit their means to repress their own citizenry... it is of course necessary but not sufficient because at some point there has to be an element of direct support to the citizens.”

He went on to emphasize that it is of great importance for the people of Iran, especially the victims of the regime, to see and feel “that they are not alone, and the world has finally heard their voice and are taking actual measures to support them and further punish the regime.” 

“My political mission in life is to see to a transition,” he said, highlighting that “at the end of the day it's the Iranian people who make the final decision for their future.” He added, “for me that mission ends the day that the Constitutional project is offered to the nation by the Constitutional assembly and ratified by means of a referendum which will then establish the future system in Iran.” 

Since the beginning of the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement, ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022, well-known figures of the Iranian opposition, such as Pahlavi, have been holding meetings with the government and parliamentary officials of Western countries hoping to further isolate the Islamic Republic in the global community and ensure support for the Iranians.