Meyad Maleki, the former head of the Office of Sanctions Targeting at the U.S. Treasury Department, referring to a Bloomberg report about reviewing the revival of “prize courts” for maritime piracy, said this mechanism could give the U.S. Department of Justice more leeway to seize and confiscate oil tankers and related shipments linked to the Islamic Republic.

He added that even the seizure of a few ships and the loss of assets worth several hundred million dollars could have a strong impact on shipping companies and disrupt the maritime network used to evade sanctions and export the Islamic Republic’s oil.