The Biden administration announced a new round of Iran-related sanctions amid ongoing diplomatic efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. The new measures, unveiled on Wednesday, target “an international network of individuals and entities” that the Treasury Department said facilitated the sale of US-enforced Iranian oil and petrochemical products to East Asia. The sanctions come days after US and Iranian diplomats held a round of indirect talks in Qatar to try to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the multilateral agreement that saw Iran curb its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions against his economy. “While the United States is committed to reaching an agreement with Iran that seeks a mutual return to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, we will continue to use all of our authority to sanction the sale of Iranian oil and petrochemical products,” he said. Treasury Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said in a statement. Wednesday’s measures were imposed on several individuals and companies based in Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong that the US accused of helping to “deliver and sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products from Iranian companies to East Asia.” . The sanctions would freeze the companies’ assets in the United States, cut them off from the US financial system and bar Americans from doing business with them. The US State Department also issued its own Iran-related sanctions on Wednesday against entities based in Iran, Vietnam and Singapore. “The United States has been forthright and steadfast in pursuing meaningful diplomacy to achieve a mutual return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement. “It is Iran that has failed, to date, to demonstrate a similar commitment to this path. Absent a change of course from Iran, we will continue to use sanctions authorities to target Iran’s exports of oil, petroleum products and petrochemicals.” Former US President Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018 and launched a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Iran. In turn, the Iranian government began to escalate its nuclear program well beyond the limits set by the JCPOA. President Joe Biden and his top aides say they are committed to reviving the deal through mutual compliance, but have continued to impose Trump’s sanctions and added dozens of their own. As Biden prepares to visit Israel and Saudi Arabia next week, prospects for reviving the Iran deal have dimmed, with US officials warning that the window to save a deal is closing as Tehran irreversibly gains nuclear know-how. Several rounds of talks in Vienna, which began in April 2021, have failed to secure a return to the JCPOA. Negotiations were on ice for months until they resumed in Qatar last week. Tehran has blamed Washington’s refusal to lift sanctions for the failure to reach a deal so far. “Agreement is possible only on the basis of mutual understanding and interests,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdolahian wrote on Twitter on Tuesday after a phone call with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. “We remain ready to negotiate a strong and durable agreement. The US has to decide if it wants a deal or if it insists on sticking to its unilateral demands.”
