The United States has expanded sanctions against Iran, targeting the country's ministry of petroleum along with 10 other entities, two other vessels and eight individuals including the minister of petroleum, the National Iranian Oil Company and National Iranian Tanker Company were also blacklisted, according to the US Treasury.
According to the Treasury, the blacklisted individuals were involved in the recent sale of Iranian gasoline to Venezuela.
"The regime in Iran uses the petroleum sector to fund the destabilizing activities of the IRGC-QF," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.
The US-Iran tensions have been running high for months following the Trump's administration unilateral decision to pull out from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal inked under Barack Obama and began reimposing Washington's sanctions that had been lifted under the agreement.