The 18 companies sanctioned include Marshall Islands-registered Changtai Shipping and Motionavigations Limited and UAE-based Indo Gulf Ship Management.
Tightening its noose around the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the United States has added its affiliates, including the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, to its list of designated terror organisations and slapped sanctions against two Pakistan-based LeT leaders.
A United States official is set to hold talks in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Lebanon this week on sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council on Iran over its nuclear programme.
A US special envoy met senior Taliban representatives in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and discussed the issue of Afghan central bank reserves.
The United States has labelled a Pakistan-based money changer as a "global terrorist" for providing financial services to the banned Lashkar-e-Tayiba terror group that has been involved in a series of terrorist attacks in India, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead.
The designation seek to deny Dakhil the resources to plan and carry out terrorist attacks.
The Trump Administration called on the Pakistani government to deny sanctuaries to 'dangerous' individuals and organisations.
The Gupta family has relocated to Dubai amid corruption charges against them in South Africa.
The US has slapped additional tough sanctions on Russia's financial services and energy sectors for the failure of Moscow to taken enough steps to address the volatile political situation in Ukraine.
LeT commander Abdul Rehman al-Dakhil was named as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) by the Department of State.
The comment was in response to a June 19 Reuters story citing sources with knowledge of the matter as saying that India planned to clear some oil payments to Iran through the United Arab Emirates central bank.
The US has slapped sanctions against a number of international companies and individuals for evading sanctions against Iran and for providing support for its contentious nuclear programme.
Hafiz Talha Saeed is a senior leader of the LeT and is the head of the cleric wing of the terrorist organisation.
Pakistani security agencies on Thursday arrested two suspects involved in the car bomb blast outside the house of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind and chief of the banned Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) Hafiz Saeed, an official said.
Regional States will be worried that the US's nascent engagement with the Taliban behind the fig leaf of humanitarian aid enables the return of US intelligence personnel to Afghanistan, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'We have seen in India that radical ideology has by and large not been successful in taking root.'
Three people were killed and over 20 others injured in a bomb blast outside the house of the Mumbai terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed in Lahore on Wednesday, the police said.
India may seek US' help for extradition of Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind of 1993 Mumbai blasts, as they vowed to make "joint and concerted efforts" to dismantle safe havens for terror and criminal networks like Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, D-company, Al-Qaeda and Haqqani network.
'Islamabad receives billions in aid from the US but continues to harbour terrorists,' he said.
In a late-night tweet in capital letters, he said Iran must 'never, ever threaten the United States again'.
'If I had not been elected President of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea,' Trump said.
This is the joint statement issued by the ministry of external affairs on the visit of US President Barack Obama to India.
Moving ahead with their new mantra -- Chalein Saath Saath: Forward Together We Go -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed to deepen cooperation in every sector for the benefit of global stability and people's livelihoods over the next ten years.
Read the full transcript of President Obama's State of the Union address on Wednesday at the US Capitol in Washington.
