ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States on Wednesday imposed a fresh wave of sanctions on Iran’s petroleum trade amid continuing efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal and ahead of Joe Biden’s trip to the Middle East.
The US State Department said it was designating dozens of global entities and individuals linked to Iran's illegal petroleum trade which are funding Tehran with vast amounts of funds. The 15 sanctioned individuals and entities have "engaged in the illicit sales and shipment of Iranian petroleum," and are located in Iran, Vietnam, Singapore, the UAE, and Hong Kong, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced, adding that they "have supported Iranian energy trade generating millions of dollars' worth of illicit revenue."
The sanctions come a week after Tehran and Washington held a round of indirect and EU-mediated talks in Qatar in attempts to restore the nuclear deal that yielded no result. The US said the negotiations made "no progress."
In the statement, Blinken also highlighted the talks, blaming Iran for deterring the pathway of achieving a mutual return to the full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
"It is Iran that has, to-date, failed to demonstrate a similar commitment to that path. Absent a change in course from Iran, we will continue to use our sanctions authorities to target exports of petroleum, petroleum products, and petrochemical products from Iran," he added.
Iran and world powers, including the US, have held talks for over a year aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the JCPOA. The Islamic republic has demanded that the US must lift its crippling sanctions, including on the IRGC, which Washington has placed on a terror blacklist.
Occurrences of the US imposing sanctions on networks backed by Iran are common.
Washington in May designated an oil smuggling and money laundering network backed by an elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) branch and the Russian government.
The US in January also seized a vessel transiting from Iran in the Gulf of Oman carrying explosive materials. The ship was stopped along a route infamously used to smuggle weapons to the Huthi rebels in Yemen.
