FEATURE | US pressures Iran with new sanctions, moves to stop Strait of Hormuz "tollbooth"

OFAC also designated several rahbar companies that it said work with Bank Sina, which is controlled by Iran's supreme leader, and the military-affiliated Bank Sepah, which has funded Iran's ballistic missile programme, Treasury said.

OFAC designated two companies, Nix Energy and Tai Lung Trading, that Treasury said had been used to transfer millions of dollars on behalf of Iranian individuals that had been sanctioned in the past.

In a separate alert, Treasury underscored that no payments to Iran or the IRGC for safe passage through the strait would be authorised for US persons or institutions, and that foreign financial institutions, "risk exposure to sanctions," for engaging in transactions with anyone paying such "tolls."

The Trump administration has already imposed sanctions on five Chinese teapot refineries, including Friday's action against Hengli Petrochemical Dalian Refinery, one of Iran's largest customers of crude oil and petroleum products.