US Sanctions 13 Over Iran Weapons Procurement

The United States sanctioned 13 individuals and entities accused of helping Iran obtain weapons and components on Tuesday. Targets include parties based in Russia, China, Hong Kong, and Pakistan.

Treasury and State Department officials issued the designations together. Officials said the listings were meant to degrade Tehran’s ability to reconstitute weapons programs and to raise costs for those who supply them.

“Treasury will not tolerate any support to the regime and will continue to identify, expose, and isolate Iran’s enablers,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

Among those sanctioned, the Treasury Department identified Seyyed Asghar Alizadeh Tabatabai, a Beijing-based representative of Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, as having coordinated procurement of finished weapons systems and dual-use components in China. It also named Iran-based Kavoshcom Asia R and D Group, which it said procured electronics, including connectors for Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company; Hong Kong-based EC Mojo Technology Co Limited and China-based representative Li Fen; and Pakistan-based Waseem Pasha Tajammal, chairman of Cavalier Group.

The State Department designated three companies under Executive Order 13949, which addresses conventional arms activity of Iran. They are Joint Stock Company Experimental Design Bureau named after A.S. Yakovlev, a Russia-based aircraft manufacturer; MG-FLOT Limited Liability Company, a Russia-based shipping firm; and SAHA Airlines, an Iran-based airline affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force.

Yakovlev produces the Yak-130 advanced trainer fighter jet. The State Department said Russia first delivered several of the aircraft to Iran in late 2023, then sent associated equipment from Irkutsk in November and December 2025. Russia has now delivered nearly all of the reported 24 contracted Yak-130 aircraft, according to a State Department fact sheet.

MG-FLOT vessels were involved in moving close-range ballistic missiles from Iran to Russia in 2024, the department said. In late 2025, air defense vehicles and related materiel left Iran for Russia aboard the Kompozitor Rakhmaninov, identified as blocked property of MG-FLOT. SAHA Airlines was cited for transporting arms and related materiel.

Any property of the designated persons that is in the United States or in the possession of U.S. persons is blocked and must be reported to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Entities owned 50 percent or more by blocked persons are blocked as well.

The State Department said the designations followed the one-year anniversary of the reimposition of U.N. sanctions and restrictive measures on Iran. Over the past year, the United States imposed dozens of new sanctions and convened representatives from 40 countries to strengthen implementation.

War, Blockade, and Economic Outcast

Bessent called it an “economic onslaught” meant to “sever every economic lifeline” of Iran.

Iran had about 15 million barrels of oil remaining for delivery, Bessent said on Sept. 27.

“They will have nothing to trade for anything, probably within the next two weeks. They are going to make their final deliveries of oil to China, and then they will have nothing,” he said.

“They want to make a deal, and I think that’s fine. I like making a deal, too. But that deal would not be acceptable,” he told reporters at the White House.

Prior Aviation and Shipping Designations

“Let this be a warning to anyone doing business with Iran’s remaining airlines, all of which we sanctioned today: You are at risk of being cut off from the global financial system,” Bessent said at the time.

SAHA Airlines had been designated under Executive Order 13902 on Sept. 8 before Tuesday’s additional listing. Yakovlev was previously designated under Executive Order 14024 on May 19, 2023. TransMorFlot LLC, which changed its name to MG-FLOT on June 27, 2022, was designated under that Russia-related order on May 8, 2022.