US announces new sanctions on Iranian oil network amid nuclear talks

The move came shortly after talks between U.S. and Iranian officials concluded in Oman.

By Finya Swai

The United States imposed new sanctions tied to a network moving Iranian oil, the State Department said Friday.

The move — which sanctions 15 entities, 14 vessels and two individuals — targets Tehran’s “shadow fleet,” a covert shipping network that the Trump administration says helps Iran evade sanctions. That income is used to bankroll terrorist groups and destabilize the region, according to the State Department.

“Instead of investing in the welfare of its own people and crumbling infrastructure, the Iranian regime continues to fund destabilizing activities around the world and step up its repression inside Iran,” the department said in a statement.

The sanctions came right as U.S. and Iran officials conducted talks in Oman on Friday, mediated by Omani officials and aimed at easing mounting tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program — a diplomatic track pushed by Arab officials concerned about escalating regional conflicts.

It’s the first time the two countries have sat down for negotiations since Israel attacked Iran last June. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Friday’s talks were off to a “good start” and set to continue. Araghchi and other Iranian officials attended, as did special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in Oman’s capital, Muscat.

The president has made repeated threats toward Iran over its nuclear prospects and separately over violence from Iranian leadership targeting protesters. U.S. officials said it will continue to take action against Iran so long as it violates restrictions on energy exports.

“While these negotiations are taking place, I would remind the Iranian regime that the president has many options at his disposal, aside from diplomacy, as the commander in chief of the most powerful military in the history of the world,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a White House briefing on Thursday.

The administration has taken a series of actions to curb the shipping network under its “maximum pressure” campaign, a strategy first rolled out during Trump’s first term. Last year, the U.S. sanctioned Iranian oil tycoon Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, whose shipping network profited from shipping oil and other cargo from Iran and Russia.

The State Department did not immediately provide details on the two individuals targeted.