Who was Ali Shamkhani?: Senior Iranian military and political official who served as secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council from 2013 to 2023, brokering the 2023 Saudi-Iran normalisation. An Arab Iranian from Khuzestan with IRGC roots and a prior term as Defence Minister. Killed in the opening US-Israeli strikes on 28 February 2026.Source: Lowdown
Why did OFAC sanction Indian companies in April 2026?: On 15 April 2026 OFAC designated two Indian nationals and three companies (including Fleet Tanqo Private Limited and House of Shipping Private Limited) plus nine tankers for facilitating Shamkhani's Iranian oil smuggling network. The IRGC fired on Indian-flagged tankers three days later.Source: US Treasury / OFAC
How did Ali Shamkhani die?: Shamkhani was killed on 28 February 2026 in the opening US-Israeli strikes alongside Defence Minister Nasirzadeh and IRGC Commander Pakpour. Iranian state television and Al Jazeera confirmed the deaths.Source: Iranian state television; Al Jazeera
What is the Shamkhani oil smuggling network?: The label OFAC uses for the UAE- and India-facilitated shipping chain that moved Iranian crude past sanctions. Treasury's 15 April 2026 action named Chetan Prakash Balhotra and Tanjore Sunilkumar Srinivas as facilitators, designated Navi Mumbai- and Chennai-based companies, and added nine tankers to the SDN list.Source: US Treasury / OFAC
What was Shamkhani's role in Iran's security structure?: As Supreme National Security Council secretary for a decade, Shamkhani coordinated nuclear diplomacy, proxy network management across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, and back-channel communications with Gulf States and Western interlocutors. He was one of the few Iranian figures trusted across both IRGC and civilian diplomatic spheres.Source: Lowdown

Background

Ali Shamkhani's name, eighteen months after his death, became the legal anchor of the first OFAC action to reach inside Indian municipal jurisdiction since the 2026 Iran war began. On 15 April 2026 the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control published designations under the IRAN-EO13902 and SDGT programmes naming two Indian nationals (Chetan Prakash Balhotra, Tanjore Sunilkumar Srinivas), three companies including Fleet Tanqo Private Limited of Navi Mumbai and House of Shipping Private Limited of Chennai, and added nine tankers to the SDN list. Treasury titled the action "Economic Fury Targets Illicit Oil Smuggling Network Run by Iranian Regime Elite" and identified Shamkhani's network as the structure it was dismantling. The IRGC fired on Indian-flagged tankers Sanmar Herald and Jag Arnav three days later.

Shamkhani himself was killed on 28 February 2026 in the opening US-Israeli strikes, confirmed by Iranian state television and Al Jazeera alongside the deaths of Defence Minister Nasirzadeh and IRGC commander Pakpour. An Arab Iranian from Khuzestan, he served as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 2013 to 2023, a tenure spanning nuclear negotiations, the 2023 Saudi-Iran normalisation, and coordination of the proxy network across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. He previously served as Defence Minister and spent his career bridging IRGC culture and civilian diplomatic channels, one of the few figures trusted across factional lines.

His elimination removed the interlocutor whose back-channels had sustained Iranian diplomacy at the moment Masoud Pezeshkian's government most needed one, and handed his oil portfolio to a dollar-system compliance regime that continues to carry his name. The OFAC action shows how networks outlive the named Iranian principals Israel and the US targeted in the decapitation: the Shamkhani sanctions architecture will tie Indian refiners, UAE free-zone companies and Gulf clearing banks to secondary-sanctions risk for as long as Treasury keeps the designations live, regardless of who now operates the shipping.

Source Material

Ali Shamkhani: Iran security chief who brokered Saudi deal confirmed killed Ali Shamkhani