The Trump administration imposed fresh sanctions on Iran’s automotive and rail sectors on Thursday, the US Treasury Department said, widening a wartime economic campaign aimed at cutting off alternative supply routes after a naval blockade choked off Tehran’s oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
The sanctions designate Iran Khodro Company and SAIPA Iranian Automobile Manufacturing Company, which the Treasury said together account for more than 90 percent of Iran’s domestic auto market, along with foreign suppliers to those firms based in Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. The action also targets the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Railway Company, along with the Raja Passenger Trains Company and a major private freight operator known as the Railway Transportation Company.
Treasury officials said the move reflects an effort to cut off alternative routes Iran has increasingly relied on for moving petroleum, fertilizer, chemicals and other goods by land after the US blockade disrupted its sea-based exports. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the measures target what he called the regime’s enablers and are intended to help drain its revenue. The sanctions fall under the department’s “Operation Economic Outcast” initiative, launched in August, which is designed to curb funding for Iran’s war effort, missile programs, cyberoperations and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The campaign is part of a broader US push to force Tehran back to the negotiating table following a conflict that began with a joint US-Israeli strike on Iran roughly seven months ago. Sanctions expert Brett Erickson of Obsidian Risk Advisors said Washington has progressively tightened pressure across Iran’s economy, moving from sea to air and now to land transport, but cautioned that the expanding measures are likely to impose significant hardship on ordinary Iranians as well as the government.
The sanctions come as indirect talks between Washington and Tehran, mediated by Qatar, have continued over a broader settlement, including a proposed truce tied to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring the dual-track approach combining economic pressure with diplomatic engagement.
