US imposes sanctions on network of Chinese, Emirati and others dealing with petroleum

The United States has imposed sanctions on a network of Chinese, Emirati, and other companies that it accused of helping to deliver and sell Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products to East Asia.

The U.S. Treasury Department yesterday said that the network of people and entities had used a web of Gulf-based front companies to facilitate the delivery and sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in products from Iranian firms to China and elsewhere in East Asia.

A media report says Washington has increasingly targeted Chinese



companies over the export of Iran's petrochemicals as the prospects of reviving the nuclear pact have dimmed.

In Doha, Qatar last week, indirect talks between Tehran and Washington ended without a breakthrough over how to salvage the deal, under which Iran had reined in its atomic program.

The U.S. State Department also targeted a Vietnamese company and a Singapore-based company for engaging in the transport of Iranian petroleum products. Three Iran-based entities were also targeted in the action.