A US-based watchdog group on Thursday accused Panama of playing a key role in enabling sanctions evasion by Iranian oil tankers while Tehran’s oil ministry announced a significant rise in crude exports.
The organization United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) said 17% of a fleet of vessels it suspects of smuggling sanctioned Iranian oil are currently flying the Panamanian flag.
In a statement, UANI described Panama’s maritime registry as the “most commonly used national registry among this shadow fleet,” citing tactics such as flag-hopping, fake ownership records, and manipulation of automatic identification systems (AIS).
“Panama has long been the flag of choice for sanctions violators and oil smugglers,” said UANI CEO Mark D. Wallace. “We’ve repeatedly provided the AMP [Panama Maritime Authority] with names, evidence, and warnings. Their lack of consistent, proactive enforcement continues to undermine global sanctions compliance.”
UANI’s tanker tracker lists 542 foreign-flagged vessels suspected of involvement in sanctioned oil shipments from Iran.
Following mounting pressure, Panama in March deregistered 107 vessels and is currently reviewing 18 more, acting under Executive Decree No. 512, which allows authorities to remove ships owned by sanctioned entities from its registry.
The allegations come as Iranian officials publicly celebrate rising energy production and oil exports.
Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad, speaking during the inauguration of Iran’s 29th Oil, Gas, Refining and Petrochemical Exhibition in Tehran, said the country has boosted oil output by 150,000 barrels per day under the current administration, with daily gas production up 30 million cubic meters and petroleum refining capacity growing by 180,000 barrels per day.
Paknejad added that gasoline and diesel output has increased by 7 million and 8 million liters per day, respectively, despite what he called intensifying sanctions. “Oil exports are continuing at the highest possible level,” he said.
He added that Iran plans to complete over 30 major oil and gas projects by March 2026, representing $10 billion in investment, which he said will further raise daily oil production by 250,000 barrels and gas by 30 million cubic meters.
He also said Iran needs over $20 billion in annual funding to maintain and expand production, adding that the ministry is pursuing innovative financing tools and encouraging greater private sector participation to meet these goals.
While Iran has not publicly addressed the UANI report, it has consistently rejected the legality of unilateral US sanctions and insists that its energy exports comply with international law.
The Panama Maritime Authority has not yet responded to the latest allegations. However, officials have previously defended their compliance with international norms, citing recent regulatory changes intended to strengthen enforcement.
In spite of sanctions, Iran's oil sales have continued to grow in recent years.
In October, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) in the US reported that Iran's oil sales reached $144 billion in the first three years of the Biden administration, $100 billion more than what Tehran exported in the last two years of the Trump administration when the oil sanctions were in effect.
In March, the US seized multiple Iranian oil tankers in the Persian Gulf which were using forged Iraqi documents.
Speaking on state television, Iraq's Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said: "We received some verbal inquiries about oil tankers being detained in the Persian Gulf by US naval forces carrying Iraqi shipping manifests.
"It turned out that these tankers were Iranian ... and were using forged Iraqi documents. We explained this to the relevant authorities with complete transparency and they also confirmed this."
Poilievre asserted recently that about 700 operatives and affiliates of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which Canada has designated as a terrorist entity, must be tracked down and expelled.
But this was nothing new. He had expressed similar views in many speeches and interviews before. So what is different this time? How could rhetoric translate into action beyond gestural politics, built on a tenuous perception of Canada’s strategic leverage?
Poilievre and his caucus appear to have presumed that IRGC operatives would vanish the moment Canada listed the group.
Last June, when reports broke hours before the announcement, they erupted in a frenzy, lamenting the leak as if operatives were standing by the door moving assets in anticipation. Yet once the dust settled, everyone returned to their routines, leaving the world undisturbed.
With bells tolling for the Liberals after a lost decade, and the Conservatives hoping to be incoming sheriffs, they must face a deeper reality. Tehran’s reach is not a statistic but a network resistant to rhetoric. Something beyond grandstanding is inevitable.
The Myth of 700
First, one must ask: where did the 700 figure originate?
It came from an independent effort by a coalition named Stop IRGC, aimed at identifying those affiliated with the Islamic Republic who settled in Canada through legal channels. While notable, it was not government-backed and lacked security resources for verification. No intelligence assessment, inquiry, or briefing has substantiated it.
Poilievre nonetheless repeated it as fact, reducing complexity to a tally shaped by partisan urgency.
I do not, for a second, believe the IRGC’s presence ends there. Years of inaction have turned lingering suspicion into undeniable reality. Activists, whether living in Canada or passing through, must now calculate their security risks.
Nor did operatives scramble to flee upon the listing. For Tehran’s fortune-brokers, Canada was never an obstacle. Even when the Conservative government had a chance over a decade ago to act against Mahmoud-Reza Khavari—a top Iranian banker who financed the IRGC’s missile program, embezzled billions, and fled to Canada—it turned a blind eye.
The regime and its IRGC presence are the product of sustained drift, allowing influence to fester across levels and seep into corners.
Beyond numbers: a real plan
Poilievre and his allies must recognize that strategy cannot rest on recital. A committed resolve is the only way to dismantle the IRGC’s hold. The Liberals never had one; when superficial action was taken, it collapsed under contradictions, punishing the wrong people.
A two-pronged strategy, I propose, is required to deal with the problem. First, focus on critical entities: IRGC and Basij members, operatives posing as civilians, financial networks, propaganda arms, and regime-linked organizations. Second, avoid actions that unjustly impact innocents.
A real strategy recognizes that IRGC operatives do not arrive in bloodstained green uniforms. They come as businessmen, investors, and tourists, traveling freely from the land they loot to the land where they hoard.
Any action has to hinge on the recognition that the IRGC and the Iranian state are one—indistinguishable in form, inseparable in purpose.
It is alarming that last December, an IRGC-affiliated news agency boasted of a “private sector” bypassing sanctions, especially in Canada. Individuals from a Canadian-registered nonprofit were interviewed on “innovative solutions” to do so.
This same group hosts webinars on exporting oil, gas, and petrochemical products, claiming collaboration with Iran’s Ministry of Industry—whose officials are sanctioned and banned from entering Canada for human rights violations.
Collaboration with entities sustaining the power structure of the Islamic Republic cannot be permitted under the pretense of legitimacy. Targeting the theocracy means little if you enable the institutions that sustain it.
Tehran’s playbook has long capitalized on Canada’s strategic vulnerability. The story is not about mythical figures who once slipped through. It is about a decades-old infiltration campaign that has unsettled our foundations from within.
Has Poilievre assigned the color of his cards before the real test calls?
Poilievre’s true test
If the Conservatives take power, let them not chase ghosts. Let them identify a handful of real, high-profile regime and IRGC operatives, transparently held accountable in full view of the public. That alone would shake Canada’s quiet standing as a sanctuary for tyranny’s enforcers more than any grand arithmetic of slogans.
The duplicity of senior Iranian officials in Canada offers a case study in calculated deceit—silencing hearings, disclaiming crimes, vanishing when accountability nears. Sadly, even rare breakthroughs fade under a Liberal establishment where secrecy lingers and accountability bends.
For any future leadership to set a real precedent, groundwork must begin before power is seized. Not hours before a designation. Not weeks into a mandate.
As a powerful voting bloc, the Iranian-Canadian community appears to be moving towards the Conservatives to turn the page on staged politics. For years, those in charge sold them a political vaudeville called a pie in the sky on Canada’s political Broadway.
If Poilievre plans to peddle another ticket to the same tired show, he should know: not a single seat will be sold. No more.