U.S. imposes another round of Iran-related sanctions amid nuclear deal negotiations

U.S. imposes another round of Iran-related sanctions amid nuclear deal negotiations
by Darryl Coote
Washington DC (UPI) May 14, 2025

The United States has imposed additional Iran-related sanctions, as the Trump administration negotiates with Tehran on a new nuclear weapons deal.

The sanctions announced Tuesday by the U.S. Treasury target an Iranian oil smuggling network the Trump administration accuses of generating billions of dollars for the Tehran regime's military and proxy forces.

Fifteen front companies, buyers and facilitators in Hong Kong, mainland China, the Seychelles and Singapore were hit by the punitive measures, along with 52-year-old Iranian national Mohammad Khorasani Niasari and two shipping vessels.

The secondary sanctions were levied due to their links to Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars Company, which the previous Biden administration blacklisted in November 2023 for overseeing the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff's network of front companies that it uses to sell commodities, including oil, internationally -- funds that are used to further Iran's weapons and nuclear programs and other destabilizing activities.

According to Treasury officials Sepehr Energy obfuscates the origin of these oil shipments through a series of deals involving between multiple front companies it owns. Some of the entities that were blacklisted Tuesday were established in China and Hong Kong.

Among the tactics deployed to conceal the oil's Iranian origin is the use of ship-to-ship transfers at sea before the cargo reaches China. Once in the country, Sepehr Energy relies on complicit local agencies willing to aid their sanctioned sales.

Khorasani is a financial inspector for Sepehr Energy and its affiliates and was sanctioned Tuesday for helping to manage the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff's transactions.

"As long as Iran devotes its illicit revenues to funding attacks on the United States and our allies, supporting terrorism around the world and pursuing other destabilizing actions, we will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to hold the regime accountable," State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

The sanctions are the latest the Trump administration has imposed since early February when President Donald Trump resumed his so-called maximum pressure policy from his first term -- an effort that failed to coerce Iran into returning to the negotiating table for a new nuclear weapons deal.

During his first term in office, Trump imposed sanctions against Iran and unilaterally withdrew the United States from a landmark Obama-era multinational nuclear accord aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Trump applied his maximum pressure campaign of sanctions and political pressure to force Tehran to negotiate a new deal he believed would be better. Instead, the Middle Eastern country ignored its obligations under the accord and escalated its nuclear weapons program to the point where the U.S. government estimates Iran could need as little as a week to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a single nuclear bomb.

However, talks about a new nuclear deal between the two countries have resumed during the Trump's second term, with State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott telling reporters in at a Washington press conference on Tuesday that the negotiations "continue to show progress."

There have been four rounds of informal talks with the fifth round yet to be scheduled.

Trump, speaking in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, called on Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions and accept "a much better path toward a far better and more hopeful future" or expect consequences. The United States under administration of both Democrats and Republicans have said they will not permit Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

"I want to make a deal with Iran," Trump said. "This is an offer that will not last forever. The time is right now to choose. We don't have a lot of time to wait."

The Trump administration is demanding that Iran discontinue its uranium enrichment program and dismantle its facilities. Iran has said it will not compromise on its enrichment capabilities.

On Monday, after the United States blacklisted three Iranians and a related technology firm involved in nuclear weapons research, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Majid Takht-Ravanchi suggested there was a possibility of negotiating on its enrichment allotments.

For a limited period of time, we can accept a series of restrictions on the level and volume of enrichment," he said, state-run Press TV reported.

"We have not yet gone into details about the level and volume of enrichment."

According to the Treasury, since Trump announced the resumption of his maximum pressure campaign, the United States has sanctioned 253 individuals, entities and vessels related to Iran and its proxies.

Iran says likely to hold nuclear talks with Europeans this week
Tehran (AFP) May 14, 2025 - Iran's top diplomat said Wednesday a new round of talks on his country's nuclear programme with Britain, France and Germany was likely to be held in Turkey later this week.

"The next round, at the level of deputy foreign ministers, I think, is scheduled to be held in Istanbul on Friday," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Tehran.

French diplomatic sources also told AFP the meeting would take place in the Turkish city on Friday, adding it would be held at the level of political directors.

There was still no word from London or Berlin on the meeting, which was originally slated for earlier this month but postponed.

Iran has held several discreet meetings on the nuclear issue with the three European nations since late last year -- most recently in February in Geneva -- ahead of indirect negotiations with Washington that began on April 12.

"While we continue the dialogue with the United States, we are also ready to talk with the Europeans," Araghchi said.

"Unfortunately, the Europeans themselves have become somewhat isolated in these negotiations with their own policies," he added, without elaborating.

"We do not want such a situation and that's why we have continued our negotiations" with them, he said.

Friday's expected meeting follows a round of Oman-mediated talks between Tehran and Washington on Sunday.

The four rounds of US-Iran talks were the highest-level contact in years between the long-time foes, since US President Donald Trump in 2018 abandoned the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.

Since returning to office in January, Trump has revived his "maximum pressure" approach against Tehran. While backing nuclear diplomacy, he also warned of potential military action if it fails.

Western countries, including the United States, have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, while Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.

The 2015 deal between Iran and major powers Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States included a so-called "snapback" mechanism, which parties can trigger to automatically reinstate UN sanctions on Iran over its non-compliance.

That option expires in October but French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has warned that "if European security interests are not guaranteed, we will not hesitate for a single second to reapply all the sanctions that were lifted 10 years ago."

Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67 percent limit imposed by the 2015 deal but still below the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material.

While Tehran defends its right to enrich uranium as "non-negotiable", Washington describes it as a "red line" with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling for the dismantling of all Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities.