--- title: "US Widens Iran Sanctions as Hormuz Passage Risk Grows" url: https://www.herechapin.com/2026/08/26/iran-sanctions-hormuz-treasury-designations/ date: 2026-08-26T16:17:37+00:00 modified: 2026-08-26T16:17:37+00:00 author: "Logan Saavedra" categories: ["National"] site: "HERE Chapin" attribution: "HERE Chapin" --- # US Widens Iran Sanctions as Hormuz Passage Risk Grows *Source: [HERE Chapin](https://www.herechapin.com/2026/08/26/iran-sanctions-hormuz-treasury-designations/) — August 26, 2026 by Logan Saavedra* A notice published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, at 91 FR 54957 formalised the indefinite suspension of five long-standing authorisations under the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, with the stay taking effect Monday, August 24, 2026. The notice is the regulatory record of a much larger package of measures that the Department of the Treasury announced that Monday, and it locks in restrictions on personal remittances, academic exchanges, conference services and sports exchanges involving Iran. The Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Treasury unit that administers sanctions, set out the same day what it described as the opening step of a sustained economic campaign against the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to the Treasury announcement, the package combined new sectoral determinations, a large list of designations, the withdrawal of general licences and fresh guidance for shipowners and insurers operating near the Strait of Hormuz. ## Five sectors added to the sanctions perimeter The central legal step was a determination signed by the director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control under section 1(a)(i) of Executive Order 13902, the 2020 order covering additional sectors of the Iranian economy. The determination applies that section to the aviation, digital asset, gold, shipping and technology sectors, and states that any person found to operate in those sectors becomes exposed to sanctions. It took effect on August 24, 2026, and adds to earlier determinations covering the financial, petroleum and petrochemical sectors. Alongside the determination, the Office of Foreign Assets Control published an update to its list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons. The Treasury statement put the scale of the action at close to 60 individuals, entities and vessels across several jurisdictions, tied to procurement for military and missile programmes, cyber intrusions and oil revenue networks. The list update identified six tankers and gas carriers as blocked property, among them crude oil carriers registered in Barbados, the Gambia and Vanuatu. The Department of State said in its own release that its designations under Executive Order 13846 and Executive Order 13949 covered seven individuals responsible for military activities and procurement, two Iran-based entities that it said gathered imagery used to target American forces and regional partners, and a broader group of shippers, brokers and traders moving Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products through the United Arab Emirates, China, Singapore and Europe. It called on other governments to take parallel action. ## Licences withdrawn, with a wind-down window The Federal Register notice lists the suspended authorisations as sections 560.544, 560.550 and 560.554 of title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations, covering certain educational activities by United States persons in third countries, non-commercial personal remittances to and from Iran, and services connected to conferences. It also stays Iran General Licence F, covering professional and amateur sports exchanges, and Iran General Licence G, covering academic exchanges and certain educational services. To avoid abrupt cut-offs, the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued Iran General Licence BB, which authorises transactions that are ordinarily incident and necessary to winding down business previously covered by the suspended authorisations until September 8, 2026. A separate authorisation, Iran General Licence AA, permits certain activities involving one named European refining company. ## The shipping lane at the centre of the standoff The same day, the sanctions office reissued its alert on the risks of meeting Iranian demands for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, updating guidance first published on May 1, 2026. The alert warns that United States and non-United States persons risk sanctions or penalties by dealing with three designated bodies: the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, designated on May 27, 2026 under counterterrorism authorities, and the Persian Gulf Marine Insurance Company and HormuzSafe Marine Services Authority, both designated on July 29, 2026 for operating in the Iranian financial sector. The document states that exposure arises even where no money changes hands, including where a vessel operator accepts insurance or other services from those bodies or answers demands for guarantees of safe passage. It lists payment forms that would carry the same risk, among them cash, digital assets, offsets, government-to-government arrangements, informal swaps and donations framed as charitable giving. Service providers are advised to run enhanced due diligence on vessels planning to transit, to ask counterparties who they coordinated with and whether any fees were paid, and mariners are given contact details for United States naval watch and coordination desks. Data from the Energy Information Administration explains why the lane matters. The agency reports that oil flows through the strait averaged 20 million barrels per day in 2024, equivalent to about a fifth of global petroleum liquids consumption, and that flows in the first quarter of 2025 were broadly flat against the previous year. Between 2022 and 2024, crude oil and condensate volumes through the strait fell by 1.6 million barrels per day, partly offset by an increase of 0.5 million barrels per day in product cargoes. The agency notes that only Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates operate pipelines able to bypass the strait, with the Saudi east-west line rated at 5 million barrels per day. ## Tehran, the council and the inspectors Iran has set out its own reading of the waterway at the Security Council. In United Nations coverage of the 10145th meeting of the council, the Iranian representative stated that the Strait of Hormuz lies within Iranian territorial waters, that Iran is not a party to the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea and is not bound by its provisions, and that Iran had taken practical measures to prevent misuse of the waterways which would be examined again as circumstances evolved. The representative also described the seizure of Iranian commercial vessels as an act of piracy. The council itself adopted resolution 2817 (2026) on March 11, 2026, by 13 votes in favour, none against and two abstentions from China and the Russian Federation. The text condemned attacks on several neighbouring states, demanded an end to strikes on residential areas and civilian objects, and demanded a halt to threats, provocations and actions aimed at interfering with maritime trade. At a later session, delegations pressed for navigation through the strait to be restored fully and without conditions. The nuclear file remains unresolved in parallel. In a report circulated to its Board of Governors on 4 June 2026, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it had no access to the four declared enrichment sites in Iran and could not establish the current size, composition or location of the enriched uranium stockpile, having last estimated the total at 9,874.9 kilograms as of 13 June 2025, including 440.9 kilograms of material enriched to up to 60 percent. Inspectors did carry out verification work at the Bushehr nuclear power plant from 1 to 3 June 2026. A further report dated 10 June 2026 stated that the agency could not verify that no nuclear material had been diverted. Treasury said teams from Treasury, State and the Department of War are giving other governments defined timelines to end the activity identified in the designations, and that it will act where they do not. The next fixed marker in the documents is the September 8, 2026 close of the wind-down window.