WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. on Thursday issued new Iran-related sanctions, targeting one individual and several entities including a Chinese “teapot” oil refinery for purchasing and processing Iranian crude oil, the Treasury Department website showed.
It was Washington’s fourth round of sanctions on Iran’s oil sales since President Donald Trump said in February he was re-imposing a “maximum pressure” campaign including efforts to drive down the exports to zero. Trump aims to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and funding militant groups.
China is the largest importer of Iranian oil.
The refinery Treasury targeted for sanctions is China-based Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
Tehran says its nuclear energy program is for peaceful purposes, while Western powers say its enrichment of uranium to levels approaching weapons-grade has no logical civilian applications.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Ismail Shakil; writing by Katharine Jackson; editing by Mark Heinrich)
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