Iran is one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world.

Economic sanctions on Iran, beginning with those imposed by the US in the immediate wake of the revolution, followed by further tranches imposed by the United Nations over its nuclear programme in 2006, have played a central role in tilting Iran’s economy to the point of collapse. Israel’s attack in June last year, which resulted in a 12-day war between the two countries, further undermined confidence.

The US first imposed sanctions on Iran in 1979, when the Islamic revolution overthrew the shah, or monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whose forces notoriously used repression and torture to keep him in power, without a democratic mandate.

In 1979, Washington also halted oil imports from Iran and froze $12bn in Iranian assets.

In 1995, then-President Bill Clinton issued executive orders preventing US companies from investing in Iranian oil and gas and trading with Iran. A year later, the US Congress passed a law requiring that the US government impose sanctions on foreign firms investing more than $20m a year in Iran’s energy sector.

In December 2006, the United Nations Security Council imposed its own sanctions on Iran’s trade in nuclear-energy-related materials and technology and froze the assets of individuals and companies involved in activities pertaining to it.lowed suit.

In 2015, Iran signed a nuclear deal – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – with the US, United Kingdom, China, France, Germany, Russia and the EU. Under that pact, Iran agreed to refrain from any uranium enrichment and research into it for 15 years.

But in 2018, during his first term as president, Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the nuclear treaty and reimposed all sanctions on Iran.

In 2019, the Trump administration designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a “foreign terrorist organization”. Additionally, Trump imposed sanctions targeting petrochemicals, metals (steel, aluminium, copper), as well as senior Iranian officials.

On January 3, 2020, after the US assassinated Qassem Soleimani, the head of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force, in a drone strike in Baghdad, Iraq, it also imposed more sanctions on Iran.

In September 2025, the UN’s sanctions were reimposed on Iran over its nuclear programme when the UNSC voted against permanently lifting economic sanctions on Iran.

Currently, under US and other international sanctions, nearly all of Iran’s oil revenues remain frozen. Additionally, assets held overseas are frozen, trade is restricted, and banks have been targeted.

Financial networks and companies linked to the development of Iran’s nuclear, ballistic-missile network and entities, such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which many in the international community hold responsible for domestic repression, are also sanctioned and are not permitted to do business with the US or other nations levying sanctions.

Now, China buys more than 80 percent of Iran’s shipped oil, data for 2025 from analytics firm Kpler shows. Much of it is transported by a “shadow fleet” of oil tankers which fly false flags or switch off tracking devices to avoid sanctions.

Al Jazeera report