Iran
A part of Pardis petrochemical complex facilities in Assalouyeh on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf, Iran, on September 4, 2018. Photo: Iranian Presidency Office/AP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States on Thursday announced that they were imposing sanctions on an international network which includes companies from Iran, China, and the UAE, for evading sanctions and aiding the sale of Iranian petrochemical products abroad, as pressure mounts on Tehran to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
The companies had supported Hong-Kong-based Triliance and Iran’s Petrochemical Commercial Company (PCC), and were “instrumental” in brokering the export of Iranian petrochemicals, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said.
“This network helps effectuate international transactions and evade sanctions, supporting the sale of Iranian petrochemical products to customers in the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and the rest of East Asia,” the statement from the OFAC continued.
The latest sanctions come following recent statements from Brian Nelson, the US under secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, saying that they are seeking a diplomatic path towards returning to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal.
If the two sides fail to reach a successful deal, Washington will continue to impose sanctions to limit the export of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products, as well exposing Iranian sanctions-evading networks, according to Nelson.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Thursday reiterated the statement from Nelson, stating that the Biden administration has sought a diplomatic path to return to the JCPOA, but "absent a deal, we will continue to use our sanctions authorities to limit exports of petroleum, petroleum products, and petrochemical products from Iran."
Washington began imposing new sanctions on Tehran following the US decision to unilaterally withdraw from the JCPOA in 2018. Tensions between the US and the Islamic Republic have been on the rise ever since, coming to a head with the US assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani near Baghdad International Airport in January 2020.
The OFAC began imposing sanctions on Triliance in January 2020, stating that the company had facilitated “millions of dollars’ worth of exports” from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), which it accused of financing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.
The force is designated as a terrorist organization by the US.
In May Blinken announced that the US was imposing sanctions on an oil smuggling and money laundering network backed by the IRGC and the Russian government.
US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley told American lawmakers in May that "the odds of a successful negotiation are lower than the odds of failure" to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, blaming the seeming collapse of negotiations on "excessive Iranian demands to which we will not succumb."
Talks between world powers and Iran have stalled since mid-March as negotiators seek to return to the nuclear deal that curtailed Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Tehran has moreover sought a guarantee that future US administrations will not be able to withdraw from the accord.
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