“We have been clear and consistent about the need for countries around the world to enforce sanctions that are on the books and, as appropriate, to increase pressure on the Iranian regime in response to its intransigence,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters, adding that the American government is engaged with “the day-to-day business of enforcing our sanctions”.
Addressing Iran’s oil trade with China, Price said that the US government has been monitoring the Iranian petroleum and petrochemical trade, and at times has even sanctioned China-based entities for operating crude storage facilities for Iranian oil.
“We think it’s important that we work together even when we have profound differences across multiple fronts, as is the case with the PRC (People’s Republic of China), that we work together to see to it that sanctions are very clearly and rigorously enforced,” Price added.
Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with global powers allowed Tehran to sell oil on the international market, but when former US president Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018, believing it was too lenient on Iran, it meant that Iran would need to sell oil to other countries at a price markdown.
Reviving the nuclear deal - formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - appeared to be close in August following a proposed European Union “final” text. However, Iran’s violent crackdown on the protests that engulfed the country following the death of Zhina (Mahsa) Amini while in police custody in September led to a barrage of condemnations and sanctions from the international community, also pausing the talks aimed at restoring the deal.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson on Monday said that even though official negotiations have been on a halt, the EU foreign policy chief is in continuous communication between all parties to the 2015 nuclear deal, including Tehran and Washington.
However, Price on Tuesday told reporters that a mutual return to the JCPOA is not an option at the moment.
“The JCPOA has not been on the agenda because the Iranians have consistently turned their back on a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA. They did so last September when an agreement was essentially on the table, when the other participants in the P5+1 had essentially agreed to it, and all it would have taken was an Iranian determination to move forward with it. They chose not to; they chose to renege on commitments,” Price said.
