The State Department said it is eyeing measures to clamp down on Iran’s oil exports amid rising worries about Tehran’s vow to take revenge against Israel for the killing of a top Hamas leader.
Despite the tightening of sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s economy in recent years, the country’s exports of crude have steadily risen. According to data from analytics firm Kpler, its oil sales rose 30 percent in the last quarter alone, taking its fossil fuel shipments to a five-year high.
In comments to POLITICO, a State Department spokesperson defended the existing restrictions on the trade as hurting Iran because “sanctions evasion is very costly — paying middlemen, laundering money, and so on. We assess that the Iranian regime receives only a fraction of the revenue from its oil sales as a result.”
However, the official added, new efforts to squeeze Tehran’s cash flows are on the table and “as Iran continues to escalate tensions in the region, we will work with partners to further pressure Iran and reduce their oil exports.”
