Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for economic diplomacy says the basis of new US sanctions has changed, making it easier to sanction individuals and companies in certain sectors, IRNA reports

The substance here is a claim that the basis of US sanctions design has shifted toward making it simpler to target individuals and firms in specific sectors, which in past cycles has meant a move from broad sectoral measures toward entity and network-level designation, a style of pressure that is administratively cheaper to expand and harder to unwind. For crude, the transmission channel has historically run through designation of shipping, insurance, and intermediary traders rather than headline sanctions announcements themselves, with the durable effect showing up in freight, insurance premia, and the discount on sanctioned barrels rather than in outright supply loss. Remarks carried by the state news agency serve a domestic and negotiating audience as much as a market one, so the informational weight sits with any follow-on US designation action rather than with Tehran's characterization. The things worth tracking are subsequent Treasury or State designations, tanker and insurance market responses, and whether the comments accompany a shift in the state of nuclear or sanctions talks. As it stands this is framing from the sanctioned party, not a change in enforcement.