(Washington) The United States announced new sanctions on Monday to prevent Iran from selling its oil, and this time targeting companies that transport it, in a context of failure for months of talks between the two countries.
Posted at 1:03 p.m.
“The United States designates six entities facilitating illicit transactions related to Iranian oil and petroleum and petrochemical products, the Iranian government’s main sources of revenue,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
The US Department of State is thus targeting the companies Pioneer Ship Management and Golden Warrior Shipping – and its ship, the Glory Harvest – for participating in the transportation and logistics management of Iranian oil.
The Treasury Department reports economic sanctions against four other companies, “used by the Iranian Gulf Petrochemical Industry Commercial (PGPICC), one of the country’s largest petrochemical brokers, to facilitate the sale of dozens of million dollars worth of Iranian oil and petrochemicals produced from Iran to East Asia,” according to a separate statement.
“PGPICC is a subsidiary of the Iranian petrochemical conglomerate Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industry (PGPIC), which accounts for half of Iran’s total petrochemical exports”, and is already subject to sanctions by Washington, it is specified. in the press release.
The four companies targeted by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) are Blue Cactus Heavy Equipment and Machinery Spare Parts Trading, Farwell Canyon HK Limited, Shekufei International Trading and PZNFR Trading Limite.
Antony Blinken emphasized that “the United States has attempted to pursue the path of diplomacy to achieve a mutual return to the full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)”, i.e. the 2015 international agreement providing for the limitation of Iranian nuclear activities in exchange for an easing of international sanctions.
“Until Iran is ready to return to full implementation of the JCPOA, we will continue to use sanctions to target exports of oil, petroleum products and petrochemicals from Iran,” he warned.
At the start of 2021, President Joe Biden had bet on rapid negotiations to resuscitate the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement, which his Republican predecessor Donald Trump had slammed the door on. But the negotiations did not succeed and the tensions redoubled in intensity.