Iranian authorities seized a foreign tanker in the Gulf of Oman and detained 18 crewmembers, according to Iranian media. The detained crew included nationals of Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka.
News Briefs
December 12, 2025
U.S. special operations forces boarded a ship in the Indian Ocean in November and seized dual-use items bound from China to Iran. According to U.S. officials, the seized items had applications in conventional weapons and were being delivered to companies that procure goods for Iran's missile program. The cargo was destroyed after being seized.
-- Wall Street Journal
December 8, 2025
A senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) official told members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Iran has resumed large-scale production of ballistic missiles. The official said Iran is prioritizing reconstruction of its ballistic missile arsenal. Unnamed Western diplomats claimed in November that Iran had begun to manufacture missiles using older production methods in the absence of planetary mixers, key pieces of production equipment that Israel had destroyed in its strike.
-- Ynet News
December 5, 2025
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy carried out an exercise in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman. During the exercise, the IRGC Navy launched Qadr 110, Qadr 380, and Qadr 360 cruise missiles and "303"-type ballistic missiles at simulated targets.
-- Reuters
December 5, 2025
Standard Chartered bank settled a £1.5bn lawsuit brought by its investors in U.K. court. The plaintiffs argued that Standard Chartered's past breaches of sanctions on Iran were more widespread than the bank had acknowledged. In 2019, Standard Chartered had settled charges brought by U.S. and U.K. authorities related to sanctions violations. The financial terms of the current settlement have not been disclosed.
-- Financial Times
November 27, 2025
Iran has sent hundreds of millions of dollars to Hezbollah since late 2024 using money exchanges and other companies in located in Dubai, in order to help Hezbollah rebuild after its war with Israel. The transactions are often carried out using the hawala system of parallel accounts between dealers in Dubai and Lebanon. According to Arab officials, Iran has also sent couriers with small amounts of cash and jewelry to avoid Lebanese airport controls that have been tightened as a result of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire agreement. According to a senior U.S. official, the United States is also concerned about funds being smuggled from to Hezbollah through Turkey and Iraq and wants Lebanon to shut down the Hezbollah-linked financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan.
-- Wall Street Journal
November 25, 2025
Imen Gostar Raman Kish, a company controlled by senior officials in Iran's Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), a military nuclear research institute, advertises equipment containing radiation-detection tubes manufactured by U.K.-based company Centronic Ltd. The Mindex Center, the export agency of Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), also advertises the same equipment. The chairman and vice-chairman of Imen Gostar are both senior SPND officials sanctioned by the United States, and its CEO traveled to Russia in 2024 as part of an Iranian delegation seeking technologies usable in nuclear weapons development. Imen Gostar also claims to sell plastic-scintillator detectors that contain components produced by U.S.-based company Eljen Technology as well as a photomultiplier tube produced by a brand controlled by Exosens, Centronic's France-based parent company. There is no evidence that the Western manufacturers knowingly sold the components to Iran.
-- Financial Times
November 18, 2025
Iranian nuclear experts linked to the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) visited a Russian company specializing in laser technology in November 2024, according to documents obtained by FT. The delegation was organized and led by Ali Kalvand, the director of SPND-linked procurement broker DamavandTec. It included four Iranians who purported to be DamavandTec employees but were actually researchers affiliated with universities linked to Iran's defense establishment, including Shahid Beheshti University, Islamic Azad University, and Malek Ashtar University of Technology. The delegation visited the St. Petersburg-based company Laser Systems, which is licensed to develop weapons for Russia's defense ministry. A Laser Systems researcher subsequently visited Tehran to meet DamavandTec representatives in February 2025. Ali Kalvand had also led another delegation of Iranian nuclear experts to Russia earlier in 2024.
-- Financial Times
November 15, 2025
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that it had seized a tanker "for carrying unauthorized cargo". The vessel, the Talara, was a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker transporting gasoil from Singapore to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Talara's Cyprus-based ship management company said it lost contact with the vessel on November 14 approximately 20 nautical miles off the coast of Khor Fakkan in the UAE.
-- Reuters
October 31, 2025
Between ten and twelve shipments together containing 2,000 tons of sodium perchlorate, an ingredient for solid missile propellant, have arrived in Iran's Bandar Abbas port from China since the reimposition of U.N. sanctions on Iran at the end of September, according to European intelligence sources. Some cargo ships made multiple trips between Iran and China and appear to be crewed by Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), including the MV Artavand, Barzin, Basht, and Elyana. 2,000 tons of sodium chlorate is sufficient for fueling approximately 500 missiles, according to experts. Iran previously received shipments of sodium perchlorate from China earlier in 2025, including 1,000 tons in February and another 1,000 tons in June. A large explosion in Bandar Abbas in April was believed to have been caused by sodium perchlorate stored there.
-- CNN