Bessent says Iran loaded zero crude onto tankers in September
The U.S. Department of the Treasury on Thursday sanctioned Iran’s auto and rail sectors, including state-owned rail companies and suppliers based in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Turkey and Indonesia, according to CNBC. Treasury also sanctioned what it described as the A7 network, a financial channel linked to Russia that Iran uses to avoid sanctions.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent posted on X Thursday that “Iran loaded ZERO crude oil onto tankers in September. The Trump Administration is cutting off the Iranian regime’s most critical source of revenue.”
The U.S. military is sending a third aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East along with an amphibious force carrying 2,000 Marines, preparing for potential escalation in fighting, officials said Thursday. The deployment brings total U.S. forces in the region to about 50,000 troops.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier group and the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group left San Diego, a U.S. official told Al Jazeera. The Roosevelt joins the USS George Washington, which was in the Arabian Sea on Thursday, and the USS George H.W. Bush, which is operating in the Indian Ocean, The Washington Post reported. The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group has been deployed to the Middle East for months.
The three carrier strike groups would include a combined nearly 20,000 troops, up to 150 fighter jets and many destroyers capable of launching and fending off missile attacks, The Post reported.
President Donald Trump has said he may resume attacks on Iran after the midterm elections in November. The 8-month war with Iran has stalled, and talks are on hold after Trump rejected Iran’s peace proposal Saturday.