The ministry added in a press release that, under severe financial constraints resulting from international isolation, it developed complex banking schemes and alternative payment messaging systems specifically designed to evade sanctions and protect its ability to collect export revenues, particularly from illicit oil sales. Bissaint added, “The treasury will continue to disrupt Iran’s schemes aimed at evading our sanctions, denying it revenue access, and starving its weapon programs of capital to protect the American people.” He continued, “The US Treasury Department is committed to using all available tools to counter Iran’s attempts to circumvent sanctions and repatriate illicit foreign revenues, as demonstrated by our recent actions imposing sanctions on ‘covert banking services’ networks… in addition to extensive shipping networks that generated billions of dollars in revenue.” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei said, “America’s new sanctions are a continued hostility by decision-makers in Washington towards our people,” adding that they “aim to weaken the country and deprive citizens of their basic rights,” according to the Iranian Tasnim agency. Baghaei considered that “US sanctions are a violation of international law and human rights principles,” condemning “the recent military aggression launched by America and Israel against Iran’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty.” He also described the trade on Iranian oil as a “malicious step aimed at harming economic development and the welfare of the Iranian people,” calling it a “criminal act and an example of a crime against humanity.” The US government announced last Wednesday a “new series of sanctions on Iran, targeting 50 individuals and entities, and more than 50 ships suspected of belonging to a commercial fleet owned by the son of a senior official in Tehran.” According to the US administration, “the sanctions target a fleet of oil tankers and container ships belonging to Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of Ali Shamkhani, a close advisor to the Iranian leader,” noting that the Trump administration is intensifying its efforts within the ‘maximum pressure’ campaign on Iran.
