
U.S. issues additional Iran-related sanctions, Treasury website shows
The oil sales benefit Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, Iran's most powerful paramilitary organization, it said. The U.S. has designated Quds as a foreign terrorist organization.
The Quds Force employs front companies outside of Iran that use offshore accounts to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in profits derived from Iranian oil sales to circumvent U.S. sanctions, Treasury said.
The money funds Iran's weapons programs and proxy groups across the region, according to the Treasury Department, which has imposed waves of sanctions targeting such activities.
"The Iranian regime relies heavily on its shadow banking system to fund its destabilizing nuclear and ballistic missile weapons programs, rather than for the benefit of the Iranian people," said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
15 minutes ago
- Reuters
CK Hutchison ports deal deadline likely to be extended as geopolitics weigh, sources say
HONG KONG, July 25 (Reuters) - CK Hutchison's ( opens new tab plan to sell most of its $22.8 billion ports business is unlikely to be finalised anytime soon, with political brinkmanship set to continue, and sources saying that a Sunday deadline for exclusive talks was likely to be extended. The Hong Kong conglomerate's plan to sell the business, which would include two ports along the strategically important Panama Canal, to a consortium led by BlackRock (BLK.N), opens new tab and Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte's family-run shipping company MSC, has become politicised amid an escalating China-U.S. trade war. Negotiations for the deal, which covers 43 ports in 23 countries, are on an exclusive basis between CK Hutchison, controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, and the consortium for 145 days until Sunday, according to the terms announced in March. The deal talks, however, are unlikely to collapse if the two parties do not ink a pact by Sunday, with three people close to the ports-to-telecoms conglomerate saying the parties could extend the deadline to continue exclusive negotiations. The first part of the deal - definitive documentation to sell two port operations near the Panama Canal - was also not signed by an April 2 deadline set in the sales announcement. The people declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. BlackRock declined to comment. CK Hutchison and MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, which CK Hutchison said in May was the main investor in the consortium, did not respond to requests for comment. U.S. President Donald Trump hailed the deal as "reclaiming" the Panama Canal, after his administration previously called for the removal of what it said was Chinese ownership of the ports near the canal. But in April, China's top market regulator said that it was paying close attention to CK Hutchison's planned sale and that parties to the deal should not try to avoid an antitrust review. Beijing's stance on the planned deal was made public after pro-China media launched a stinging criticism, saying China had significant national interests in the transaction and it would be a betrayal of the country. "I think at this moment it's not very optimistic that they can directly sell the ports to the consortium," said Jackson Chan, global fixed income senior manager at FSMOne Hong Kong, which has clients holding CK Hutchison bonds. "The market has already digested the news, even if it announces next week that it won't sell anymore, I don't think it'll be a shock because the market understands it wouldn't have a large impact on its operations." CK Hutchison shares, which jumped 33% the following two days after the deal was announced in early March, erased all of the gains by mid-April. But since then it regained lost ground along with the rise in the broader Hong Kong market index (.HSI), opens new tab. The outlook for the deal has been clouded further in recent days, with a separate source telling Reuters that Chinese ports operator China Cosco Shipping Corp (COSCO) was also looking to join the consortium to buy the ports business. COSCO is requesting veto rights or equivalent power in the entity that will take over 43 ports from CK Hutchison, Bloomberg News reported this week, citing people familiar with the matter. COSCO did not respond to a request for comment. Responding to Reuters' emailed queries on the deal prospects and possible involvement of COSCO in the consortium, a White House official said: "As the president said, we didn't give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back." The official did not elaborate. The existing consortium would likely allow COSCO into the deal, said Cathy Seifert, an analyst at CFRA Research. "The bigger risk to the deal being consummated, in my opinion, is likely the Trump administration, which is likely to block a deal that would include China," said the New Jersey-based analyst who tracks BlackRock. Ballingal Investment Advisors strategist David Blennerhassett, who publishes on the independent online research platform Smartkarma, said the addition of COSCO in the consortium was likely to enrage Trump. "Trump, who has a handful of issues already on his plate, would be incandescent," he said.


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Ending Russia's war in Ukraine key issue in Trump talks with EU, UK, sources say
British and US sources say key issues on the agenda for US president Donald Trump's visit to Scotland to meet with British prime minister Keir Starmer and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen include ending Russia's war in Ukraine. Before he left Washington, Trump said on Friday that he is looking at secondary sanctions on Russia amid the war in Ukraine. Von der Leyen said later she would meet Trump in Scotland on Sunday. British officials have been heartened by what they see as a clear shift in Trump's rhetoric on Ukraine and Russia in recent weeks. The United States told China at the United Nations on Friday it should 'stop fuelling Russia's aggression' in Ukraine, as China accused Washington of trying to shift blame and spark confrontation. Acting US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea urged all countries, specifically naming China, to stop exports to Russia of dual-use goods that Washington says contribute to Russia's war industrial base and enable its drone and missile attacks on Ukraine. China's deputy UN Ambassador Geng Shuang responded it is not a party to the conflict, has never provided lethal weapons, and has always 'strictly controlled dual-use materials, including the export of drones'. The Kremlin said on Friday that a summit between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy could only happen as a final step to seal a peace deal. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that it was unlikely that such a meeting could occur by the end of August, as Ukraine has proposed. Ukraine says a leaders' meeting is required in order to achieve a breakthrough in the slow-moving process, which has seen the two sides hold three brief sessions of peace talks in Turkey since mid-May. In comments to journalists, Zelenskyy said Russia had begun to engage over the possibility of such a meeting. Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday toured a factory producing interceptor drones, increasingly seen as a solution to protecting Ukrainian cities from Russian air attacks, and said a goal had been set to make up to 1,000 of the weapons each day. Zelenskyy, speaking in his nightly video address, said newly appointed defence minister Denys Shmyhal had reported on foreign assistance that would enable Ukraine to 'ensure a reliable flow of weapons for Ukrainian soldiers.' Civilian casualties in Ukraine are on rise as Moscow has deployed a nightly blitz of drones, decoys, cruise and ballistic missiles – increasingly aimed at a single city or location. 'A plan has been approved to reach production of 500-1,000 interceptor drones per day. The deadline has been set,' said Zelenskyy. Ukraine has received confirmation from partners that they will provide funding for three Patriot missile defence systems and discussions are under way to finance seven more, Zelenskyy said: 'I have officially received confirmation from Germany for two systems, and from Norway for one. We are currently working with Dutch partners.' Ukraine's top anti-corruption investigator said on Friday that he did not expect attempts to derail his agency's work to end, despite an abrupt U-turn by Zelenskyy on curbing their independence that fuelled rare protests. Semen Kryvonos said he was taken aback by attempts this week to curtail his agency's fight against graft. He spoke a day after Zelenskyy sought to defuse tensions by submitting legislation restoring the independence of NABU and its sister agency, the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO). Thousands of protesters took part in protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities this week after lawmakers fast-tracked a bill granting a Zelenskyy-appointed general prosecutor power over the two bodies. Kryvonos applauded Zelenskiy's reversal, but said NABU and SAPO remain a high-priority target for vested interests aiming to stymie their closely watched efforts to clean up. Zelenskyy says Ukrainian forces are facing fierce fighting around the city of Pokrovsk in the east, a logistics hub near which Russia has been announcing the capture of villages on an almost daily basis. Russia's defence ministry on Thursday announced the capture of two villages on either side of Pokrovsk – Zvirove to the west and Novoekonomichne to the east. A third village near the city – Novotoretske – was declared by Moscow to be 'liberated' earlier in the week. Ukrainian officials have made no acknowledgment that the villages have changed hands. Zelenskyy also said Ukrainian forces were also 'continuing to act' in border areas in the northern Sumy region, where Russian troops have gained a foothold in recent weeks. In Sumy, where Russian troops are trying to establish what Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin calls a 'buffer zone', the popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState said Kyiv's forces had retaken a previously lost village. DeepState said Ukrainian troops had restored control over the village of Kindrativka. There was no official comment from either side. SpaceX's Starlink satellite network was back up and running on Friday as engineers hunted for the root cause of one of its biggest international outages the night before, a rare disruption for the powerful internet system set off by an internal software failure. In Ukraine, where troops rely heavily on Starlink for battlefield communications, the outage affected combat operations as service was 'down across the entire front,' said Robert Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine's drone forces.


Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
US lifts some Myanmar sanctions, says no link to general's letter to Trump
WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - The United States has lifted sanctions designations on several allies of Myanmar's ruling generals that had been imposed under the former Biden administration. The U.S. Treasury Department announcement on Thursday came two weeks after the head of Myanmar's ruling junta praised President Donald Trump in a letter and called for an easing of sanctions in a letter responding to a tariff warning. Administration officials said there was no link between the letter and the sanctions decision. A notice from the U.S. Treasury Department said KT Services & Logistics and its founder, Jonathan Myo Kyaw Thaung; the MCM Group and its owner Aung Hlaing Oo; and Suntac Technologies and its owner Sit Taing Aung; and another individual, Tin Latt Min, were being removed from the U.S. sanctions list. The Treasury Department declined to say why the individuals had been removed from the list. In a statement to Reuters, Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said: "Individuals, including in this case, are regularly added and removed from the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List) in the ordinary course of business." Early this month, as part of a slate of import tariffs ordered by Trump, Myanmar was notified of a 40% tariff to take effect on August 1. On July 11, Myanmar's ruling military general, Min Aung Hlaing, responded by proposing a reduced rate of 10% to 20%, with Myanmar slashing its levy on U.S. imports to a range of zero to 10%. He said he was ready to send a negotiating team to Washington if needed. "The senior general acknowledged the president's strong leadership in guiding his country towards national prosperity with the spirit of a true patriot," Myanmar state media said at the time. Min Aung Hlaing also asked Trump "to reconsider easing and lifting the economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar, as they hinder the shared interests and prosperity of both countries and their peoples." A senior Trump administration official said the decision to lift sanctions was unrelated to the general's letter. "The decision to lift sanctions reflects a lengthy process that began in the prior administration," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There is no connection between these decisions and the letter." White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said that sanctions delistings "were collected over the last year in accordance with standard Treasury course of business." John Sifton, Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, called the sanctions move "extremely worrying." "The action suggests a major shift is underway in U.S. policy, which had centered on punitive action against Myanmar's military regime," he said in emailed comments. Myanmar's military overthrew a democratically elected government in 2021 and has been implicated in crimes against humanity and genocide. Kelly rejected the Human Rights Watch comments as "fake news," and a second senior Trump administration official said the sanctions decisions were not indicative of a broader shift in U.S. policy toward Myanmar. KT Services & Logistics and Jonathan Myo Kyaw Thaung were added to the sanctions list in January 2022 under the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden in a step timed to mark the first anniversary of the military seizure of power in Myanmar that plunged the country into chaos. Sit Taing Aung and Aung Hlaing Oo were placed on the sanctions list the same year for operating in Myanmar's defence sector. Tin Latt Min, identified as another close associate of the military rulers, was placed on the list in 2024 to mark the third anniversary of the coup. Representative Ami Bera, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Asia subcommittee, in a statement to Reuters called the decision to lift sanctions against the individuals "a bad idea" that "goes against our values of freedom and democracy." Other U.S. sanctions on Myanmar generals, including on Min Aung Hlaing, remain in place. Myanmar is one of the world's main sources of sought-after rare earth minerals used in high-tech defense and consumer applications. Securing supplies of the minerals is a major focus for the Trump administration in its strategic competition with China, which is responsible for 90% of rare earth processing capacity. Most of Myanmar's rare earth mines are in areas controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic group fighting the junta, and are processed in China.