A family-run financial network accused of laundering money for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has been operating from London and moving funds through shell companies in China and the UAE, according to sanctions records and leaked documents reviewed by Iran International.
Iran’s internet blackout and the US blockade are pushing the country toward a deeper economic crisis, experts told the Eye for Iran podcast, warning that Tehran is compounding foreign pressure with a self-inflicted assault on its own digital economy.
Iran has not successfully exported any crude oil by sea for 28 days amid the US naval blockade imposed in April, according to ship-tracking data from TankerTrackers, while loading activity at Kharg Island remains disrupted following a suspected oil spill near the terminal.
Iran's handwoven carpet exports, once worth nearly $2.5 billion annually, have now "virtually stopped," a provincial industry official said, reflecting the steep decline of one of the country's best-known exports.
Australia sanctioned seven Iranian individuals and four entities on Tuesday over what it called the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on protesters and women and its destabilizing activity through missile and shadow-banking networks.
Chinese companies continue to ship drone-related parts and other dual-use goods to Iran and Russia despite US sanctions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing customs data, former US officials and weapons analysts.
Iran has begun curbing oil production as the US naval blockade tightens around its oil trade, with exports plunging, storage filling and tankers gathering near the country’s main export hub, Bloomberg reported.
The Canadian opposition has accused the government of bypassing its own rules after Iran International reported that an IRGC-linked Iranian football official was granted special permission to enter the country despite being inadmissible.
Recent tracking data suggesting Iran is still moving millions of barrels of crude despite a US naval blockade has raised fresh questions about the effectiveness of Washington’s effort to choke off Tehran’s oil exports.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to introduce legislation to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the next parliamentary session, in an interview with the Jewish Chronicle.
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a network of companies, ships and individuals tied to Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, an Iranian oil trader whose business empire has become a major conduit for Iran’s sanctioned petroleum exports.
Argentina has designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, broadening a years-long effort by Buenos Aires to hold Tehran and its proxies responsible for the deadliest attacks in the country’s history.
Washington’s sanctions waiver, introduced during the Iran war to ease oil supply pressure, is channeling discounted crude away from China and toward India, strengthening energy ties with New Delhi.
Two cargo ships owned by a sanctioned Iranian shipping company have departed a Chinese chemical-storage port carrying cargo and are heading toward Iran, the Washington Post reported citing an analysis of ship-tracking data, satellite imagery and sanctions records.
Two UK-registered cryptocurrency exchanges allegedly processed billions of dollars for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards using a fabricated chief executive built from stock footage, according to an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on more than 30 individuals, companies and vessels linked to Iran, escalating economic pressure a day before a third round of talks between Washington and Tehran in Geneva.
China appears to be replacing disrupted Venezuelan oil shipments with Russian crude rather than Iranian barrels, despite steeper discounts being offered by Tehran.
Capital flight from Iran is accelerating just as oil revenues decline, according to new data from the Central Bank of Iran—a convergence that helps explain the sharp fall of the national currency in recent months.
Iran’s oil exports declined sharply at the start of 2026, new tanker-tracking data show, raising fresh questions about the durability of Tehran’s most important economic lifeline under renewed US sanctions pressure.
Iran will allow importers of basic goods to receive and sell oil cargoes from next year under an expanded barter scheme aimed at securing essential supplies, Agriculture Minister Gholamreza Nouri Ghezeljeh said on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed at a White House meeting this week to increase economic pressure on Iran, including efforts to curb its oil exports to China, Axios reported.
India’s coast guard said it has seized three oil tankers in the Arabian Sea as part of what it described as a coordinated operation against an international oil-smuggling network, while tanker-tracking analysts and Iranian media said the vessels were linked to Iran.