US and UK Launch New Sanctions Against Iran and Russia

The United States and the United Kingdom announced on October 8, 2026 new sanctions packages targeting Iran and Russia, as part of the economic pressure both countries have been applying on Tehran and Moscow. Washington expanded controls on the Iranian petrochemical industry and oil tanker fleet, while London launched its second sanctions package in a week against Russian oil and financial interests.

The US action was a joint measure by the State Department and the Treasury, carried out under the so-called Operation Economic Outcast, launched by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on August 24, 2026. The Treasury added 17 additional tankers to its sanctions list, while the State Department added five more vessels, along with 10 entities and six individuals, bringing the total to 22 vessels linked to the Iranian oil trade. According to Marine Insight, a total of 27 companies, six individuals and 22 vessels were sanctioned, including crude oil tankers, LPG carriers, chemical tankers and bitumen carriers, operating in Turkey, China, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the Marshall Islands.

Among the vessels identified, the Treasury flagged the Comoros-flagged bitumen tanker PARITOSH for carrying more than 100,000 barrels of Iranian bitumen in 2026, and the Panama-flagged BITU for more than 170,000 barrels of the same product. It also mentioned the STARWAY, which according to the report transported more than three million barrels of Iranian naphtha since 2025, and the GAS LUCKY, a Bahamas-flagged LPG carrier that moved more than 500,000 barrels of Iranian ethylene. At the same time, the Treasury delisted two container ships, the former Hakuna Matata (now Australian, under Liberian flag) and the Pinocchio, after confirming they had been sold to non-sanctioned operators linked to the United States.

The United Kingdom, for its part, announced 38 designations that include the Russian oil companies Zarubezhneft and INK Capital, with which the British government says it now covers more than 90% of Russia's total oil production capacity under sanctions. London also added 12 tankers to its list of Russian shadow fleet vessels, bringing the total number of sanctioned vessels to more than 600, including Russia's newest Arctic LNG carriers added the previous week. The package also targets three cryptocurrency exchanges and two payment platforms linked to the A7 financial network, identified by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office as a Kremlin-backed structure for evading international sanctions.

The US sanctions come after the reimposition, on July 14, of the blockade on Iranian ports following the failure of attempts at understanding between Washington and Tehran. A Treasury official cited by Reuters indicated that Iran still holds around 20 million barrels of crude oil aboard vessels outside the blockade, off Singapore, Malaysia and China, and that the country has reportedly stopped loading and unloading oil because of the sanctions. Although the Treasury described the measure as a blow to most of the Iranian shadow fleet, analysts at TankerTrackers.com noted that there are still 173 Iran-linked tankers that remain unsanctioned.