THE US imposed fresh sanctions on vessels involved in oil and liquefied petroleum gas trades on Friday, designating four LPG carriers and five tankers along with their affiliated registered owners or management firms.

The move follows a period of mass protests in Iran that erupted in late December, which have reportedly been largely quelled by the regime after a brutal crackdown that is said to have killed thousands.

US President Donald Trump threatened military action against the regime amid the violent repression, but later walked back his initial threats, saying he was assured a planned mass execution of jailed protesters was cancelled.

Nevertheless, the US is amassing forces in the Middle East, with Trump telling reporters on Friday that an “armada” was heading towards Iran, adding that while he’d “rather not see anything happen”, the US has “a lot of ships going in that direction just in case”, according to NBC.

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control billed Friday’s action as an escalation of pressure on the regime amid its crackdown on protesters.

“The Iranian regime is engaged in a ritual of economic self-immolation — a process that has been accelerated by President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

“Tehran’s decision to support terrorists over its own people has caused Iran’s currency and living conditions to be in freefall.

“Today’s sanctions target a critical component of how Iran generates the funds used to repress its own people.”

Each of the four LPG carriers sanctioned on Friday — Sea Bird (IMO: 9088536), Avon (IMO: 9034705), Al Diab II (IMO: 9053816) and Aqua Spirit (IMO: 9197727) — have been shipping Iranian LPG for at least three years, according to a Lloyd’s List analysis of Iran’s LPG exports.

The very large gas carrier Sea Bird has been involved in Iranian gas trades since the reimposition of sanctions on Iran in 2019, the analysis showed. According to Vortexa, the vessel has carried about 1.3m tonnes of LPG since May of that year.

In January 2025, the vessel was reported as abandoned and detained in Oman after authorities found “many violations”, according to a report from the International Labour Organization, which documents seafarer abandonment cases. The abandonment was marked as resolved in June 2025.

Among the five tankers sanctioned on Friday was one very large crude carrier, Cesaria (IMO: 9251602), and four product and chemical tankers, Chiron 5 (IMO: 9306665), Keel (IMO: 9176929), Longevity 7 (IMO: 9240885) and Eastern Hero (IMO: 9353905).

In conjunction with the announcement, the US also issued a general licence authorising limited transactions involving certain entities and vessels designated on Friday.