The US Treasury Department on Wednesday announced sanctions on more than 30 people, companies and vessels it said support Iran’s petroleum sales and arms production, a move that included three companies registered in Turkey that US officials said were tied to the Iranian Shahed drone program.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said the designations also covered 12 vessels that it described as part of an Iranian “shadow fleet” used to move petroleum and petroleum products to foreign markets. OFAC said it also targeted networks it believes help Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) obtain precursor materials and sensitive machinery needed for weapons production.
The Turkey-linked companies were identified as UTUŞ Gümrükleme Gıda Tekstil İthalat İhracat Dış Ticaret ve Sanayi Limited Şirketi, Arya Global Gıda Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Şirketi and Altis Tekstil Makina Ticaret Limited Şirketi. In the sanctions list update, OFAC listed all three as based in İstanbul and “subject to secondary sanctions,” a designation that can raise risks for non-US parties that do business with sanctioned entities.
OFAC said the three companies served as “financial intermediaries” for an Iran-based entity it calls Oje Parvaz Mado Nafar Company, also known as Mado, which the Treasury said produces unmanned aerial vehicle engines used in Iran’s Shahed 131 and Shahed 136 drones. Those drones have gained notoriety since Russia began using Iranian-designed Shahed drones for attacks in Ukraine.
In its announcement OFAC noted UTUŞ-originated payments totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Mado’s purchases of sensitive machinery, Arya-originated transfers totaling more than $1 million and Altis-originated transactions worth tens of thousands of dollars. OFAC said the machinery was intended for applications tied to an IRGC unit that the US State Department previously designated for involvement in Iranian ballistic missile research and flight test launches.
The sanctions package also flagged a shipping link to Turkey. OFAC said the Palau-flagged liquefied petroleum gas tanker ALAA has transported dozens of Iranian liquefied petroleum gas shipments to various jurisdictions including Turkey since 2022. OFAC said the vessel’s owner, Liberia-based Kaito Navigation SA, was designated under an Iran-related executive order targeting activity in the petroleum and petrochemical sectors of Iran’s economy.
OFAC did not identify Turkish ports or companies involved in the ALAA shipments, and it did not say whether any of the cargoes entered the Turkish market or were transshipped onward.
Wednesday’s designations were issued under several US executive orders, including one used by Washington to target proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters, and another used to target activity in Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical sectors.
The new designations come as President Donald Trump has intensified pressure on Iran and warned of possible military action if Tehran does not reach a deal with Washington over its nuclear program, while Iranian officials say their nuclear work is for civilian purposes.