The U.S. government officially linked Iran’s state oil company to the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Monday, September 24, a determination that enables Washington to apply new sanctions on foreign banks dealing with the company, Reuters reported. The Treasury Department determined that the National Iranian Oil Company, one of the world’s largest oil exporters, is “an agent or affiliate” of the IRGC, which the United States has long put under sanctions for terrorism and human rights abuses. The U.S. Congress directed Treasury to determine whether Iran’s oil and tanker companies were linked to the IRGC as part of a new package of sanctions signed into law in August. While U.S. companies already are prohibited from buying Iranian oil, the new determination means the United States can impose further sanctions on any foreign bank that facilitates transactions with NIOC, according to the sanctions law.