US sanctions widen as Iran blacklists 45 tankers in Hormuz
Planned penalties, according to AP, target countries trading with Iran, while Iran threatens 45 tankers. The rial's record low places external and domestic financial pressure in the same week.
Economics & Markets··Evening
Penalties extend to Iran's trading partners
The Trump administration said its new sanctions package would include penalties against countries that continue doing business with Iran. That design broadens the planned pressure beyond Iranian companies and institutions to foreign counterparties. The announcement came while the Strait of Hormuz remained sharply disrupted, so the trade penalties arrive alongside an existing constraint on the route used by Gulf energy exports. The administration had not yet published the complete list of measures when it described the plan.[1]
Tehran names 45 tankers
Iran said 45 tankers had broken its rules for crossing Hormuz and threatened action against vessels that transferred cargo with them. The list includes ships tied to ADNOC businesses and Saudi carrier Bahri. Before the war disrupted traffic, the Gulf supplied about 20 per cent of the world's daily crude oil and liquefied natural gas. The seven-day average of oil leaving the strait was above 8 million barrels a day, leaving the blacklist attached to a route that is still operating below its former importance.[2]
The rial reaches 2.02 million per dollar
Iran's market exchange rate reached a record low of 2.02 million rial to the dollar as the United States prepared the new measures. The official central-bank rate stood near 1.5 million rial, but the market rate is the one most Iranians pay. The gap places the sanctions announcement beside a domestic price that was already weakening. The planned penalties target foreign trading partners, while the two exchange rates record the conditions households face inside Iran.[3]
