Britain imposed sanctions on Hossein Shamkhani, the son of a close aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and four companies accused of supporting hostile Iranian activity, a government notice showed on Thursday.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said Shamkhani, son of former national security chief Ali Shamkhani, had “facilitated and provided support to hostile activity by the Government of Iran, namely activity which is intended to cause the destabilization of the United Kingdom or any other country including Israel and Ukraine.”
"Iran’s reliance on revenues from trading networks and connected organisations enables it to carry out its destabilising activities, including supporting proxies and partners across the region and facilitating state threats on UK soil," read a statement. "Disrupting Iran’s malign influence and keeping the British people safe remains our number one priority."
Shamkhani, listed under multiple aliases including “Hector,” was among five new entries added to the UK Sanctions List, which freezes their assets and bars UK nationals and firms from doing business with them.
The companies designated were Admiral Shipping Group, Milavous Group, Ocean Leonid Investments, and Iran’s Petrochemical Commercial Company. Britain said some of the firms were acting on behalf of Shamkhani and had provided logistical and financial support for Iran’s destabilizing activities abroad.
The measures come weeks after Washington announced its largest Iran-related sanctions package since 2018, targeting what it described as Shamkhani’s “global shipping empire” that moved Iranian and Russian oil, generating billions of dollars.
The US Treasury accused the Shamkhani family of leveraging political influence to evade sanctions, using false identities, shell companies, and frequent vessel reflagging to conceal ownership.
“The Shamkhani family’s shipping empire highlights how the Iranian regime elites leverage their positions to accrue massive wealth and fund the regime’s dangerous behavior,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the time.
Ali Shamkhani, a former defense minister and longtime secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was sanctioned by the United States in 2020. He remains a senior adviser to Khamenei.
