The US State Department on Thursday set sanctions against companies in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, which it says made deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars with Iran’s national oil company after US sanctions waivers expired in May 2019.Â
According to a press statement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, UAE company Beneathco is being sanctioned “for assisting or supporting the previously sanctioned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).”Â
Hong Kong entity Sage Energy HK Limited and China’s Peakview Industry Co were also sanctioned for the same reason.
The US Department of Treasury said that in late 2018, Beneathco offered to to help NIOC disguise the origin of Iranian products being exported to the UAE. It said that in 2019, Beneathco transfered of the equivalent of millions of dollars to NIOC.
Another Chinese company, Shandong Qiwangda Petrochemical, and two Hong Kong enterprises, Triliance Petrochemical and Jiaxiang Industry Hong Kong Limited, were also sanctioned for engaging in “a significant transaction” to buy, sell, or transport petrochemical products from Iran.
Treasury said that Triliance “ordered the transfer of the equivalent of millions of dollars to NIOC as payment for Iranian petrochemicals, crude oil, and petroleum products shipped to the United Arab Emirates and China” after waivers expired.
“As long as the Iranian regime continues to exploit revenue from its petroleum and petrochemical industries to fund destabilizing activities, we will sanction any entity or individual that facilitates such trade,” Pompeo said.
