The United States on Wednesday announced new sanctions on Iran, a move seen as an attempt to push for its demands through exerting pressure on Tehran during talks over the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal known as the JCPOA.
The Treasury Department issued a statement, saying it has sanctioned an international network of individuals and entities that has used a web of front companies to “facilitate the delivery and sale of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products from Iranian companies to East Asia.”
The statement, citing Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson, said that while the US is committed to achieving an agreement with Iran that seeks a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA, it will continue to use all its authorities to enforce sanctions on the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals.
“Concurrently with Treasury’s designations, the Department of State imposed sanctions on five entities based in Iran, Vietnam, and Singapore and two vessels,” the statement added.
The Biden administration imposed the new measures a week after it held indirect talks with Iran over the removal of the sanctions which Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump reinstated when he withdrew Washington from the JCPOA in May 2018 and launched a so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran.
Officials of the Biden administration have time and again said that Trump’s pressure campaign was a failure.
Despite that, the White House has kept that policy, using sanctions as a pressure tool to push for its goals.
The US pullout from the JCPOA threw the deal into disarray, making the remaining parties initiate talks in Vienna in April 2021 to revive the nuclear deal.
The Vienna negotiations were stalled in March 2022 over what Iran calls excessive demands by the US.
The negotiations, which Iran says should result in the verifiable removal of the sanctions, were resumed last week in Qatar through EU mediation.
Iran says the US should choose between making a deal or its unilateral demands.
