US designates Russian bank for helping Iran evade sanctions

The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated Russia’s VTB Bank for aiding Iranian sanctions evasion.

Washington said VTB Bank opened offices in Iran, built banking ties with sanctioned Iranian financial institutions, and worked to move billions of dollars in assets.

The U.S. government pledged continual targeting of those who provide material, technological, or financial support that allows Iran to “sustain its terrorist enterprise.”

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

On Monday, the U.S. Central Command disputed the statement by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that a Panama-flagged oil tanker struck a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz.

CENTCOM said the vessel, El Gaia, was hit by an Iranian missile last month and struck again over the weekend with a drone while the ship sat in waters off the coast of Oman.

The command described the IRGC’s claim as “another example of their lies and intimidation attempts while they try to impede commercial vessels in the strait.”

President Masoud Pezeshkian insists his country cannot be bullied into submission despite the sustained attacks on public facilities supplying water, food, and medicine.

“If Americans are warriors, let them face our valiant military forces,” Pezeshkian wrote on X. “Why wage war on civilian infrastructure, food supplies, and livelihoods?”