The United States published Thursday Iran-The related sanctions, targeting an individual and several entities, including a Chinese “theater” oil refinery for the purchase and transformation of Iranian crude oil, according to the website of the Treasury Department.
It was the fourth cycle of Washington sanctions against Iranian oil sales since the president Donald Trump said in February that he reposed a “maximum pressure” campaign, including efforts to reduce exports to zero. Trump aims to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons and finance militant groups.
The treasure of refinery intended for sanctions is the Shandong Shouguang Luqing Luqing Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
“The purchases of refinery so -called` teapot ‘of Iranian petroleum provides the main buoy in economic rescue for the Iranian regime, the main world sponsor of terror and the main funder of the murderous Houthis in Yemen, “said the American secretary of the Treasury Scott besse in an article on X.
China does not recognize American sanctions and is the largest importer of Iranian oil. China and Iran have built a trade system that mainly uses Chinese Yuan and a network of intermediaries, avoiding dollar and exposure to American regulators.
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The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
‘Minimum pressure’
Analysts said Washington had followed a path of progressive sanctions, avoiding the imposition of measures on major Chinese banks that contribute to transactions, a decision that could cause Beijing to retaliate economically.
“The strategy seems to target China as a means of putting pressure on Iran – only applying minimum pressure for the moment while gradually increasing efforts to bring Iran to a nuclear agreement,” said Scott Model, Managing Director of Rapidan Energy, a research group.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that the refinery had bought oil from ships linked to the Houthi movement aligned by Iran in Yemen, which the United States has appointed this month as a foreign terrorist organization, and the Iranian Ministry of Army Defense of the United States.
Tehran claims that its nuclear energy program is for peaceful purposes, while the Western powers claim that its enrichment of uranium at levels that approach the quality of weapons has no logical civil application.
The Treasury also imposed sanctions on 12 entities and identified eight ships as a blocked property, according to her, was responsible for the shipment of millions of Iranian oil barrels to China. These ships are part of Iran from oil -fired Shadow fleets that provide private refineries.
He also placed Wang Xueqing, who, according to him, is linked to the refinery, on the list of specially designated nationals, or SDN. Americans are prohibited from doing business with people placed on this list, and their American assets are blocked.
The ships blocked by the blocked treasury included Aurora Riley and the Catalina, and Lake Brava in Draca of the Barbados.
