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US Says it Imposes Sanctions on Moscow-Backed Iranian Oil Smuggling Network

The United States Department of the Treasury is seen in Washington, DC, US, August 30, 2020. (Reuters)
The United States Department of the Treasury is seen in Washington, DC, US, August 30, 2020. (Reuters)
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US Says it Imposes Sanctions on Moscow-Backed Iranian Oil Smuggling Network

The United States Department of the Treasury is seen in Washington, DC, US, August 30, 2020. (Reuters)
The United States Department of the Treasury is seen in Washington, DC, US, August 30, 2020. (Reuters)

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on what it described as a Russian-backed oil smuggling and money laundering network for Iran's Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, even as Washington tries to revive the Iran nuclear deal.

The US Treasury Department said the network was led by current and former Quds Force figures, "backed by senior levels of the Russian Federation government" and included Chinese companies and a former Afghan diplomat. It had raised hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran's Quds Force and Tehran's Lebanese allies Hezbollah, and helped Tehran support proxy militant groups, Treasury said.

The Quds Force is the foreign espionage and paramilitary arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and controls its allied militia abroad. The Trump administration put the guards on the State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) in 2019, the first time Washington formally labeled another nation’s military a terrorist group.

The Biden administration has been engaged in indirect talks to restart a 2015 deal former President Donald Trump abandoned, under which world powers lifted international financial sanctions on Tehran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

"While the United States continues to seek a mutual return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), we will strictly enforce sanctions on Iran’s illicit oil trade," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a separate statement, referring to the nuclear deal.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York and the Russian and Chinese embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

While talks had appeared close to resurrecting the nuclear deal in March, they stalled over last-minute Russian demands and whether Washington might drop the Revolutionary Guards from its terrorism list. Washington's Iran envoy said on Wednesday the chances of reviving the nuclear deal were shaky at best, and Washington was ready to tighten sanctions on Iran.

Wednesday's sanctions targeted Russia-based RPP LLC, which the Treasury said was used to help transfer millions of dollars on behalf of the Quds Force, and UAE-based Zamanoil DMCC, which Washington accused of working with the Russian government and state-owned Rosneft to ship Iranian oil to companies in Europe.

A former Afghan Charge d’Affaires in Moscow was also designated, as were several people described as associates of the Revolutionary Guards.

Among a number of China-based companies that were designated were Beijing-based Haokun Energy Group Company Limited and its Hong Kong-based subsidiary China Haokun Energy Limited. The Treasury accused China Haokun Energy Limited of purchasing millions of barrels of Iranian oil from the Quds Force.

Reuters was not immediately able to contact the designated companies.

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World

Australia Signs Defense Alliance with Fiji to Outmaneuver China

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (L) shakes hands with Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka (R) before a bilateral meeting at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva on July 6, 2026. (Photo by Leon LORD / AFP)
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (L) shakes hands with Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka (R) before a bilateral meeting at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva on July 6, 2026. (Photo by Leon LORD / AFP)
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Australia Signs Defense Alliance with Fiji to Outmaneuver China

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (L) shakes hands with Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka (R) before a bilateral meeting at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva on July 6, 2026. (Photo by Leon LORD / AFP)
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (L) shakes hands with Fiji's Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka (R) before a bilateral meeting at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva on July 6, 2026. (Photo by Leon LORD / AFP)

Australia and Fiji signed a major defense treaty on Monday, bolstering ties as Canberra seeks to outmaneuver China in the South Pacific.

The Ocean of Peace pact elevates Fiji to one of Australia's few treaty allies and binds each nation to come to the other's "mutual defense".

China sent waves through the region in 2022 when it signed a secretive security pact with the Solomon Islands, stoking fears it could one day lead to a permanent military presence.

Australia has greatly upped its diplomatic efforts in response, securing deals with the likes of Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Tuvalu.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed the pact with his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka during a trip to capital Suva.

The pair also signed a second comprehensive treaty covering everything from climate action to economic cooperation.

"When it comes to security issues the Pacific family need to look after our own security," Albanese told reporters.

"The significance of these agreements cannot be underestimated."

Fiji joins the United States, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea as Australia's fourth treaty-bound ally.

Under the deal, the two nations agree to consult each other over any "security-related development" that threatens their sovereignty, AFP reported.

Rabuka tried to quell concerns that China could see the treaty as a snub.

"I do not expect China to have any severe pushback," he told reporters.

"I believe that they will welcome the understanding that it is between Australia and Fiji.
"It does not threaten Fiji's relationship with China."

Fiji grew closer to China under former prime minister Frank Bainimarama, who seized power in a coup in 2006.

Bainimarama turned to Beijing for economic support after his coup resulted in damaging trade sanctions against Fiji.

But China's influence has waned since Rabuka entered office in 2022, favouring Fiji's traditional partnerships with Australia and New Zealand.

Rabuka condemned suggestions in 2025 that South Pacific nations such as Fiji might one day host a permanent Chinese military presence.

"If they want to come, who would welcome them? Not Fiji," he said at the time.

"And I think that China understands that well."

The treaty between Fiji and Australia included a clause that allowed other Pacific nations to join up later.

Pacific affairs expert Tess Newton Cain said this was clearly aimed at Pacific nations with standing militaries such as Papua New Guinea and Tonga.

"It's significant because it's very much focused on the countries that have military capacity," she said.

"It provides a very clear point of entry to have further security conversations down the track."

Albanese will visit the Solomon Islands before returning home later this week for bilateral talks with leaders from Papua New Guinea and Tonga.

Australia's alliance with Fiji mirrors the sweeping Pukpuk Treaty with Papua New Guinea, which is due to come into effect on Wednesday.

Australia and Vanuatu signed a security and economic agreement in June that bars the establishment of any foreign military base in the Pacific nation.

China in response warned Australia against playing "geopolitical games".

Beijing has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building sports stadiums, presidential palaces, hospitals and roads in Pacific island nations.

Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Nauru have in recent years severed longstanding diplomatic links with Taiwan in favor of China.

World

Russia Says Ukraine Rejects Local Ceasefire for Handover of Soldiers’ Bodies

Servicemen of the consolidated Brigade "Khyzhak" of the Ukrainian Patrol Police Department walk near a destroyed apartment building as they take part in a mission to protect a road from Russian drones between frontline towns of Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 24, 2026. (Reuters)
Servicemen of the consolidated Brigade "Khyzhak" of the Ukrainian Patrol Police Department walk near a destroyed apartment building as they take part in a mission to protect a road from Russian drones between frontline towns of Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 24, 2026. (Reuters)
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Russia Says Ukraine Rejects Local Ceasefire for Handover of Soldiers’ Bodies

Servicemen of the consolidated Brigade "Khyzhak" of the Ukrainian Patrol Police Department walk near a destroyed apartment building as they take part in a mission to protect a road from Russian drones between frontline towns of Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 24, 2026. (Reuters)
Servicemen of the consolidated Brigade "Khyzhak" of the Ukrainian Patrol Police Department walk near a destroyed apartment building as they take part in a mission to protect a road from Russian drones between frontline towns of Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 24, 2026. (Reuters)

Ukraine ‌has refused to halt shelling of the town of Kostiantynivka in the east of the country to allow Russia to hand over the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers, the Russian Defense Ministry ‌said on ‌Sunday.

Russian military ‌commanders ⁠told President Vladimir ⁠Putin on Friday that Moscow's forces had taken control of Kostiantynivka, though Ukraine denied the claim, saying its forces ⁠remained in control of the ‌town.

Kostiantynivka ‌is a key locality ‌whose capture Moscow has long ‌sought in its military campaign in the Donetsk region.

Russia said it had proposed ‌a six-hour ceasefire in and around Kostiantynivka on ⁠Monday ⁠to facilitate the handover of Ukrainian servicemen's bodies and had given Kyiv until 0900 GMT on Sunday to respond.

Ukraine's defense ministry and general staff did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

World

Infernos Devastate Forests as Europe's Temperatures Rise Again

TOPSHOT - The sun rises by the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur Basilica ontop of the Montmartre hill in Paris on July 1, 2025, as the city is on red alert for high temperatures, with the top of the Eiffel Tower shut, polluting traffic banned and speed restrictions in place as a searing heatwave gripped Europe. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP)
TOPSHOT - The sun rises by the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur Basilica ontop of the Montmartre hill in Paris on July 1, 2025, as the city is on red alert for high temperatures, with the top of the Eiffel Tower shut, polluting traffic banned and speed restrictions in place as a searing heatwave gripped Europe. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP)
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Infernos Devastate Forests as Europe's Temperatures Rise Again

TOPSHOT - The sun rises by the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur Basilica ontop of the Montmartre hill in Paris on July 1, 2025, as the city is on red alert for high temperatures, with the top of the Eiffel Tower shut, polluting traffic banned and speed restrictions in place as a searing heatwave gripped Europe. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP)
TOPSHOT - The sun rises by the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur Basilica ontop of the Montmartre hill in Paris on July 1, 2025, as the city is on red alert for high temperatures, with the top of the Eiffel Tower shut, polluting traffic banned and speed restrictions in place as a searing heatwave gripped Europe. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP)

Hundreds of firefighters battled forest infernos in France, Spain and Portugal on Sunday as temperatures rose again in heatwave-scarred Europe.

The latest wildfires have already devastated more than 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of land -- twice the size of Manhattan -- across the three countries where temperatures in some places were predicted to touch 40C on Sunday, said AFP.

Authorities registered thousands of excess deaths during one of Europe's worst heatwaves in June, and with more extreme weather on the way, France's Interior Minister Laurent Nunez has already expressed concern that the annual summer wildfire season had started a month early.

A fire near Spain's northeastern Costa Brava coast burned more than 2,200 hectares in two days and firefighters said their operation on Sunday would be "complicated" by rising temperatures and the many "smoking hotspots" within the fire's perimeter.

Firefighters "worked tirelessly throughout the night to consolidate the perimeter of the La Bisbal d'Empordà forest fire, which is now stabilized," said a Catalunya fire service statement.

Catalunya regional government president Salvador Illa said that a man had been detained in connection with the fire which has badly hit the Gavarres protected natural area between Barcelona and the French border.

Nearly 600 French firefighters have been mobilized to contain a wildfire that has burned more than 1,000 hectares on a mountainside at Trevillach, about 36 kilometers (20 miles) east of Perpignan.

- More trouble ahead -

Roads in the region have been closed and the authorities have ordered mayors to open emergency shelters for people who could be forced to flee their homes.

Another 300 French firefighters battled another forest fire in a mountainous district of the southeastern Drome department.

In Portugal, emergency services said they had controlled "80 percent" of a wildfire that has devastated some 13,000 hectares of forest and scrub land in the north of the country.

A senior civil protection officer Jose Costa told AFP that the fire had spread 35km since it started on Thursday and that 1,200 firefighters had been involved in the battle.

Spain and Italy sent reinforcements and water carrying planes after Portugal appealed for help to fight the inferno that has left nine people injured by burns.

Several regions across Portugal, Spain and southern France stepped up heat alerts on Sunday as temperatures rose again. On Monday the latest heatwave was expected to move north. Forecasters say it could last until next weekend.

Western Europe has already seen heatwaves this year in May and June that would have been "virtually impossible" without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said.

Following a two-week surge in temperatures in June, France said there had been more than 2,000 extra deaths than usual in just one week, while Spain and Belgium each reported more than 1,000.

Authorities in several countries fear more summer trouble ahead.

"Climate change is here, we are living the consequences, and it is only the start of July," said French fire service Colonel Eric Belgioino as he made an appeal for people near the Pyrenees inferno to take precautions to avoid starting fires.

"The season is going to be long for the soldiers fighting fires. You have to help us," he said.