Abdullah Al-Haqim 
3/14/2025–|Last update: 3/14/202503:05 AM (Mecca time)
Iran confirmed, on Thursday, that it is still studying its response to the message sent by US President Donald Trump, urging negotiation or confronting military action, while Washington imposed sanctions on the Iranian Oil Minister and ships that help Tehran to hide its oil shipments.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ismail Baqi, explained that they had received a message from Trump “and she is currently being reviewed.”
“The decision on how to respond will be taken after an in -depth evaluation,” the official news agency “IRNA” reported.
Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic advisor to the President of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, conveyed the message on Wednesday to Tehran, where he met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqji.
Trump revealed last week that he sent a message to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, pressing to negotiate the nuclear file, or facing a possible military action.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has re -worked with the policy of “the maximum pressure” he adopted towards Iran during his first term, but he talked at the same time about seeking a new agreement on its nuclear program, instead of the 2015 agreement from which his country withdrew unilaterally in 2018.
Oil penalties
On the other hand, the US Treasury said that it imposed on Thursday sanctions on Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Buck Nojad and some ships that raise the Hong Kong flag and participate in a fleet that has been helping Iran to hide its shipments from oil.
The policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran includes attempts to completely stop its oil exports to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and financing armed groups.
The ministry stated in a statement that Pak Ahmadinejad “oversees the export of Iranian oil with tens of billions of dollars, and allocates the Iranian armed forces with billions of dollars in oil for export.”
“The Iranian regime continues to use the huge oil resources returns in the country to enhance its narrow and disturbing special interests at the expense of the Iranian people,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“The Treasury will work to confront and thwart any attempts by the regime to finance its destabilizing activities and enhance its dangerous priorities,” he added.
Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.
The Treasury said it also imposed sanctions on the owners or operators of ships that delivered Iranian oil to China or transferred it from the stores there. She explained that she is present in many countries, including India and China.
Shadow fleet
The Iranian army relies on a huge shadow of ships to hide oil shipments to China, estimated at billions of dollars.
The ministry explained that among the ships imposed on the sanctions is the “Pace Hill” ship that raises the Hong Kong flag and the royal company Hong Kong Hishon Limited for Transport and Trade, and the “Polaris 1” ship that raises the Iran flag, the company “Fallon Shipping” registered in Seychelles, and the “Itago Service” company registered in Liberia.
The United States also targeted the sanctions, the Corona art that raises the flag of Panama, saying that it manipulated the automatic definition systems to hide the efforts made to ship Iranian oil, and the Sikai ship, which raises the San Marino flag for transporting fuel oil on behalf of the Iranian National Oil Company to China.
The sanctions prevent the targeted entities from reaching their assets in the United States and prohibits the Americans to conduct any transactions with them.
The US State Department said it had imposed sanctions on 3 entities and 3 ships.
