{"id":16498,"date":"2026-08-25T14:39:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T14:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/?p=16498"},"modified":"2026-08-25T14:39:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T14:39:23","slug":"us-widens-iran-sanctions-putting-india-in-the-crosshairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/?p=16498","title":{"rendered":"US widens Iran sanctions, putting India in the crosshairs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-133514275,imgsize-93834,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/133514275.jpg\" alt=\"US widens Iran sanctions, putting India in the crosshairs\" title=\"US widened sanctions on Iran, targeting four India-based companies and three Indian nationals for importing Iranian petroleum products\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"US widened sanctions on Iran, targeting four India-based companies and three Indian nationals for importing Iranian petroleum products\">US widened sanctions on Iran, targeting four India-based companies and three Indian nationals for importing Iranian petroleum products<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"strong\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">The TOI correspondent from Washington:<\/span> Four India-based companies \u2013 and three Indian nationals associated with two of them \u2013 have been swept into the Trump administration\u2019s new economic offensive against Iran, adding a potentially combustible new layer to the already strained US-India relations.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"3\"\/>The US State Department on Monday named Portease Partners LLP, an India-based customs broker, for facilitating multiple shipments of Iranian petrochemical products into India while sanctioning it. Its designated partners Indrismiya Ashrafmiya Sheikh and Harish Ramachandra Rangi, both Indian nationals, were also sanctioned.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"5\"\/>The other three Indian targets are Sadashiva Overseas Limited, which Washington says imported about $69 million worth of Iranian-origin petroleum products between February 2024 and June 2025; PP Softtech Private Limited, which allegedly imported about $25 million worth of Iranian petroleum products between January 2024 and June 2025; and Prakrutees Infra Impex India Private Limited, which imported Iranian petroleum products worth about $25 million between May 2023 and February 2026.<!-- --> Prashant Garg, an Indian national and director of PP Softtech, was also designated.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"10\"\/>Although the approximately $ 120 million in imports would be chump change in the overall scheme of things, the message from Washington is unmistakable: doing business with Iran is no longer merely a question of complying with US sanctions on Tehran. Foreign intermediaries, importers, brokers, shipping companies and financial institutions that help Iran generate revenue can themselves become targets.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"13\"\/>That, says Treasury Secretary and Trump enforcer Scott Bessent, is the purpose of \u201cOperation Economic Outcast\u201d : it is designed to sever Iran\u2019s remaining financial lifelines by targeting oil and petrochemical revenues, shipping, banking, technology, gold, aviation and digital assets. Nearly 60 entities, individuals and vessels were designated in the latest round.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"15\"\/>\u201cOur objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,\u201d Bessent warned, adding that President Trump was personally calling foreign leaders with \u201cspecific requests\u201d to cease their interactions with Iran.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"18\"\/>Trump himself had warned that countries allowing their banks, businesses, airports or government agencies to provide Iran with a \u201clifeline\u201d would face \u201cTREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.\u201d Earlier, he described the campaign as \u201cECONOMIC D-DAY.\u201d<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/>For India, the shocks from Washington are growing by the week. Although New Delhi has sharply reduced its economic exposure to Iran over the years, trade with Teheran and the strategically important Chabahar port \u2013 through which India accesses Afghanistan to get around Pakistan \u2013 remain part of its calculations. <!-- -->Indian exports to Iran \u2014 including rice, tea and pharmaceuticals \u2014 could also face additional disruption as sanctions and the suspension of Dubai-based trade and financial transactions make payments and shipping more difficult.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"24\"\/>The latest sanctions therefore risk aggravating a relationship already battered by disputes over tariffs, Russia and the Trump administration\u2019s increasingly transactional approach to New Delhi, according to analysts. <!-- -->Evan Feigenbaum, a veteran Asia policymaker, captured the concern bluntly, saying the \u201cone-two punch\u201d of secondary sanctions would \u201cfurther erode US-India relations,\u201d which he said had \u201clargely tanked during Trump\u2019s second term.<!-- -->\u201d<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"29\"\/>The asymmetry is striking when one factors in China. Washington is threatening India with the full force of secondary sanctions, yet when it comes to Beijing, which is Iran\u2019s biggest oil customer, Washington remains feckless. <!-- -->Although the administration has also sanctioned a substantial number of Chinese and Hong Kong-linked entities in its Iran crackdown, the scope of the action stops short of targeting China&#8217;s major financial institutions or imposing the kind of sweeping country-level economic penalties that would risk a direct confrontation with Beijing because China possesses enormous leverage over the US through its dominance of rare earths and critical minerals.<!-- --> The result is an uncomfortable contrast: Washington can be fearsome toward countries with little capacity to retaliate, while becoming markedly more circumspect when confronting a great power with economic choke points of its own.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"36\"\/>Indeed, Bessent conspicuously declined to name China when asked about major Iranian trading partners, saying that some discussions were better conducted privately. Iran, meanwhile, has dismissed the campaign as bluster. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Washington was not in an economic position to further restrict Iran\u2019s relations with other countries and claimed Tehran\u2019s trading partners were not taking the American warnings seriously.<!-- --> Tehran has also threatened retaliation against countries that cooperate with Washington, while China has rejected unilateral US sanctions as ineffective and called for diplomacy.<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/business\/india-business\/us-widens-iran-sanctions-putting-india-in-the-crosshairs\/articleshow\/133514275.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US widened sanctions on Iran, targeting four India-based companies and three Indian nationals for importing Iranian petroleum products The TOI correspondent from Washington: Four India-based companies \u2013 and three Indian nationals associated with two of them \u2013 have been swept into the Trump administration\u2019s new economic offensive against Iran, adding a potentially combustible new layer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-31"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","blogsy-small":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","blogsy-small-tall":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","blogsy-small-square":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","blogsy-small-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","blogsy-medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","blogsy-medium-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","blogsy-large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg","blogsy-wide":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/133514275.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"US widened sanctions on Iran, targeting four India-based companies and three Indian nationals for importing Iranian petroleum products The TOI correspondent from Washington: Four India-based companies \u2013 and three Indian nationals associated with two of them \u2013 have been swept into the Trump administration\u2019s new economic offensive against Iran, adding a potentially combustible new layer [&hellip;]","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 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