U.S. penalizes Chinese firms for aiding Iran
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced Thursday that it would impose sanctions on two Chinese companies that transport and store Iranian oil, a shift to a tougher stance on Tehran amid signs that efforts to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have failed.
In a statement, the State Department said the United States was targeting Zhonggu Storage and Transportation Co. Ltd., which it said operates a commercial crude oil storage facility for Iranian petroleum, and WS Shipping Co. Ltd., which it said manages a vessel that has transported Iranian petroleum products.
The Treasury Department also said eight entities based in Hong Kong, Iran, India and the United Arab Emirates had been designated as sanctions violators.
The actions come as officials in the Biden administration worry that more than 18 months of negotiations to contain Iran’s nuclear program may have reached a dead end and suggest they have begun reaching for new forms of leverage over the country’s hard-line leadership.
The sanctions against Chinese companies could also presage a tense confrontation with Beijing over its substantial purchases of Iranian oil, which have provided Iran’s government with a badly needed windfall, to the frustration of the Biden administration.
President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 agreement clinched by the Obama administration and imposed new sanctions on Iran, leading Tehran to significantly accelerate its nuclear program. U.S. officials estimate that Iran could be within one month of having enough highly enriched uranium to produce a nuclear weapon, which might take a year or more to build.
This month, the United States and Iran appeared on the brink of restoring the nuclear deal after the European Union presented a “final text” for their joint agreement. Biden officials say that Iranian negotiators raised eleventh-hour obstacles, including a demand that the International Atomic Energy Agency close an investigation into past Iranian nuclear activity.
As Iran struggles with punishing U.S. sanctions imposed by Trump after he unilaterally abandoned the nuclear deal in 2018, China has helped Tehran stay solvent by purchasing large quantities of oil, which is its main export.