ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The US Treasury Department on Tuesday said it has sanctioned a sprawling network of more than a dozen individuals, entities and aircraft it says are involved in procuring and transporting advanced weaponry for the Iranian government. The move comes as the Donald Trump-led administration has recently vowed to intensify its financial crackdown on Tehran’s drone and missile networks, in a campaign dubbed “Economic Fury.”
The Treasury said its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) “is sanctioning 14 individuals, entities, and aircraft based in Iran, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for their involvement in procuring or transporting weapons or weapons components on behalf of the Iranian government.”
It added that the latest designations target the nerve centers of Iran’s procurement networks, focusing on key supply chains tied to drones, missile production, and aviation logistics.
In the UAV sector, the Treasury said it sanctioned the Pishgam Electronic Safeh Company and its head Hamid Reza Janghorbani, accusing the firm of procuring thousands of servomotors - critical components used in Tehran’s Shahed-136 drones - through intermediaries in Iran and the UAE.
The measures also take aim at ballistic missile production, with Turkish and Iranian firms, including Emti Fiber Textile, designated for facilitating the shipment of materials such as cotton linters and sodium perchlorate, which are essential for producing solid propellant used in rocket motors.
In the aviation sector, the Treasury Department took measures against Sepehr Kaveh Kish, identified as the parent company of Mahan Air, along with associated entities and leadership.
The designations come in support of the Economic Fury campaign launched in “response to the Iranian government’s continued threats to global security,” the Treasury said.
Washington and Tel Aviv launched a coordinated military campaign against Tehran on February 28, with the US Central Command reporting in early April that its forces struck more than 13,000 targets across Iran since the onset of the operation it dubbed Operation Epic Fury. For its part, Tel Aviv reported during the same period that its forces had also struck some 4,000 targets around the same period.
In response, Tehran carried out thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets - particularly in Gulf Arab states - as well as launching retaliatory attacks against Israel. Its military also effectively restricted access through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which handles roughly 20 percent of global seaborne oil trade, and its disruption pushed global oil prices up by 40 to 50 percent.
Following around six weeks of hostilities, a Pakistan-mediated two-week ceasefire came into effect on April 8 to halt fighting and pursue talks. While the first round of discussions ended without a final agreement on April 11, Islamabad has in the past few days been ramping up efforts to host a second round of talks, but as of the time of writing this report, those efforts have yet to yield any tangible results.
Importantly, the US in mid-April launched the high-intensity Economic Fury campaign as the financial counterpart to Operation Epic Fury against Iran, aiming to isolate Tehran from the global financial system and cut off its remaining revenue streams.
As part of the effort, the US Treasury in mid-April announced it would not renew any sanctions waivers for Iranian crude oil, effectively criminalizing the purchase of Iranian oil, including stranded oil at sea, as of Sunday. Washington also warned global banks - particularly in Europe, Asia, and the Gulf - that they will face secondary sanctions and be cut off from access to the US dollar, if they facilitate transactions for Tehran.
Moreover, the Treasury on Friday expanded its campaign to include several Iran-aligned armed group commanders in Iraq, designating them as global terrorists to prevent the use of Iraqi financial channels as a backdoor for Iranian funds.
Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent remarked on Tuesday that “the Iranian regime must be held accountable for its extortion of global energy markets and indiscriminate targeting of civilians with missiles and drones,” adding that “under President Trump’s leadership, as part of Economic Fury, Treasury will continue to follow the money and target the Iranian regime’s recklessness and those who enable it.”