With less than a week before President Joe Biden is sworn in, the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on companies in Iran, China and the United Arab Emirates as part of their biggest pressure campaign against Iran.
The United States on Friday sanctioned companies in Iran, China and the United Arab Emirates to do business with Iran’s Islamic Republic Shipping Line Group and three Iranian groups over conventional arms diversification.
These are the latest in a series of measures aimed at raising pressure on Tehran in the weak days of US President Donald Trump’s administration, which ends on January 20.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington took control of seven companies, including China-based Jiangyin Mascot Special Steel Co. and UAE-based Accenture Construction Materials, and two for transporting steel to or from and Ioran.
He said the Iranian Maritime Industries Group, the Aerospace Industries Group and the Iranian Aviation Industries Group had also blacklisted the diversification of conventional weapons.
Iran has been Trump’s focus in his four years in office as he seeks to bring Tehran back into talks over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and its activities in the Middle East. In 2018, Trump suspended a nuclear deal in Iran that struck Tehran with world powers in 2015 to resume its nuclear program as a reward for easing sanctions because it did not go far enough.
Trump said he was open to negotiating a broader agreement that would seek broader restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program, as well as limits on the development of ballistic missiles and its support for militias. the regional countries such as Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.
Democratic President Joe Biden, who will succeed Trump on Wednesday, has said he will return to the 2015 nuclear deal if Iran begins to stick to it.