How Russia and Iran’s illicit oil travels the high seas

…Claire Jungman is chief of staff at the United Against Nuclear Iran nonprofit in New York. She’s been tracking the shipping tankers that have clandestinely moved Tehran’s U.S.-sanctioned oil, gas and petrochemicals to willing buyers around the globe since 2018, when then-U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the JCPOA deal. She’s also watched those ships switch to carrying Russian oil in the wake of recent Western sanctions. According to UANI, Chinese purchases of Iranian oil alone could exceed $25 billion this year — thanks to a so-called “ghost armada” of some 200 rickety vessels that ferry the high seas largely unsanctioned by American authorities.