US Treasury
US federal sanctions authority; OFAC arm enforces Iran, Russia, and Venezuela programmes across dozens of active instruments.
US Treasury, through OFAC, filed no fresh Iran designation between 31 July and 3 August, its longest quiet spell of the war, while its Cuba emergency programme kept adding targets under the Federal Register disclosures published 31 July.
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US Treasury, through its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), is Washington's sanctions and licensing authority for economic pressure short of military action. Founded in 1789 and led since 2025 by Secretary Scott Bessent, the department administers dozens of active sanctions instruments spanning Iran, Russia, Venezuela and Cuba, each with its own licence architecture and renewal rhythm.
Its designations and licences run on administrative authority alone, needing no congressional vote or presidential signature. That lets the department issue, lapse or renew instruments on its own clock even when diplomacy stalls: a wind-down licence can expire by default while designation actions against sanctions-evasion networks continue on schedule .
That structural independence makes Treasury a consequential lever of US economic pressure operating largely outside the political fights over war authorisation playing out elsewhere in Washington, and it lets the department run the Iran, Russia and Cuba programmes on separate, uncoordinated clocks. The event record includes and .
Its Iran designations run dry
Treasury filed no Iran-related designation between 31 July and 3 August, ending a stretch in which OFAC, its enforcement Arm, had named fresh targets every two to four days. The department's last dedicated Iran action was the Zanjani sanctions-evasion network on 24 July; the newest listing since falls under counter-terrorism authority, not the Iran programme .
The pause changes nothing already in force: designated persons stay blocked, and any relief would need a fresh general licence, none of which has been signed. Banks and shippers continue to operate on July's published list into August.
It let its own Iran waiver expire
Treasury revoked General License X, its Iranian oil waiver, on 7 July, replacing it with a wind-down-only channel that itself lapsed at 12.01am on 17 July with no successor issued . A separate grace period for vessels blocked on 14 July expired the same day, closing the last authorised route for Iranian crude and compressing two sanctions clocks into a single week.
Neither gap needed a fresh Treasury decision: both licences were drafted wind-down-only from the outset, so maximum pressure resumed automatically rather than through any new order, and the department has issued nothing since to reopen the channel .
It confirms a Cuba designation dated May
Federal Register notices published 31 July confirmed Treasury had designated GAESA, the Cuban military conglomerate, back on 7 May, ahead of the port, bank and hotel-fund sanctions against its subsidiaries that surfaced publicly over the following months . The disclosure closes a gap in the public record of the department's own emergency-programme timeline rather than adding a new target.
The department has kept widening that programme regardless: a 23 July action hit Cuba's medical-export company and its shipping sector on the same day, showing Treasury applying the same designation machinery it runs against Iran and Russia to a fourth, smaller economy .
Its Iran designations run dry
What is the OFAC Zanjani network designation?
It let its own Iran waiver expire
Did the US Treasury renew the Iran oil waiver in April 2026?
Reference
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What is the US Treasury Department?
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When did OFAC last designate an Iran-linked sanctions network before the Zanjani round?
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How is the US Treasury enforcing Iran sanctions in July 2026?
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What OFAC sanctions have targeted Iran in 2026?
