‘MINIMAL PRESSURE’
Analysts have said Washington has pursued a path of incremental sanctions, avoiding imposition of measures on big Chinese banks that assist in transactions, a move that could provoke Beijing to retaliate economically.
“The strategy appears to target China as a means to pressure Iran, applying only minimal pressure for now while gradually increasing efforts to bring Iran to a nuclear deal,” said Scott Modell, chief executive of Rapidan Energy, a research group.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the refinery bought oil from vessels linked to Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which the US designated this month as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and the US-designated Iranian Ministry of Defense of Armed Forces Logistics.
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.
Treasury also imposed sanctions on 12 entities, and identified eight vessels as blocked property it said were responsible for shipping millions of barrels of Iranian oil to China. These vessels are part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” of tankers that supply the private refineries.
It also placed Wang Xueqing, who it said is linked to the refinery, on the specially designated nationals, or SDN, list. Americans are prohibited from doing business with people placed on that list, and their US assets are blocked.
The vessels Treasury blocked included Panama-flagged Aurora Riley and the Catalina, and the Barbados-flagged Brava Lake.
The State Department said it was imposing sanctions on an oil terminal in China called Huaying Huizhou Daya Bay Petrochemical Terminal Storage, for buying and storing Iranian crude oil from a sanctioned vessel.
