Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON: The United States (US) imposed sanctions on Thursday on several companies it said had sold or transported Iranian petrochemical or petroleum products in violation of US restrictions, including two firms based in China.
The latest sanctions are part of a Washington drive to restrain Iranian oil smuggling and come as efforts to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement have stalled in part due to increasingly tense relations between Tehran and the Western countries.
US imposes sanctions to target Iran’s petroleum trade
In a statement, the US Secretary of State said the sanctions target eleven companies and twenty affiliated shipping containers that had provided facilities to Iran’s petrochemical and petroleum trade. The US top diplomat said that these designations underline their continued efforts to enforce their sanctions against Tehran. Iran’s mission to the UN accused Washington of basically repeating the failed maximum pressure policy of the previous US government.
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Iran’s mission to the UN told Reuters that these sanctions would be challenging for Washington to lift if the US wants to return to the nuclear agreement with Iran. The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said that the two of the sanctioned companies are based in China.
