Iran condemns new US sanctions, says Biden continues failed policy of Trump

Iran has strongly condemned new US sanctions on a number of petrochemical companies, saying President Joe Biden continues the failed policy of his predecessor, Donald Trump.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani said on Thursday the US recourse to illegal and unilateral sanctions proves the legitimacy of Tehran’s position and Washington’s
ill will and hypocrisy toward Iran and the JCPOA,” which is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

He said Biden’s policy of sanctions would “only make Iran determined to diligently pursue its national development goals and exploit its legal and undeniable rights.”

Kan'ani added that “the imposition of unilateral coercive measures contravenes the accepted norms and principles of international law.” 

He said Iran reserves the right to take all necessary measures to counter US sanctions.

Earlier on Thursday, the Biden administration said it had imposed sanctions on several Iran-based petrochemical manufacturers and their subsidiaries as well as three firms in Malaysia and Singapore.

The US Treasury Department said in a statement on Thursday the sanctions would target six petrochemical manufacturers or their subsidiaries and three firms in Malaysia and Singapore over what it claimed to be their role in the “production, sale, and shipment of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian petrochemicals and petroleum to buyers in Asia.”

Among the targeted Iranian companies were Amir Kabir Petrochemical Co. (AKPC), its subsidiary Simorgh Petrochemical Co. and four subsidiaries of previously sanctioned Marun Petrochemical Co.

The Treasury accused those companies of helping Iran sell its petrochemicals and petroleum to Asian buyers.

“Iran is increasingly turning to buyers in East Asia to sell its petrochemical and petroleum products, in violation of US sanctions,” the statement quoted Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson as saying.

The United States began a campaign of "maximum pressure" against Iran under former US President Donald Trump. As part of the campaign, Trump took the US out of a nuclear deal between Iran and world countries, and returned all the sanctions that the accord had lifted.

On his campaign trail, his successor Biden claimed he was not unwilling to return Washington to the deal. The Biden administration has, however, not only stopped short of doing so but has also been bringing the Islamic Republic under multiple rounds of fresh economic measures, in what Tehran slams as the Biden team's continuation of Trump's anti-Iran policies.

On October 3, 2018, the International Court of Justice issued an order that temporarily, but unanimously, required the US to remove any impediments to the importation of foodstuffs as well as medicines and medical devices to Iran. The US has, however, been refraining from implementing that verdict too.

At 2.2 million bpd, Iran’s oil exports return to pre-sanction levels

Iran’s overall exports of crude oil, petroleum products, gas, condensates, liquids and LPG have reached 2.23 million barrels of crude oil per day, which is the same figure as before the sanctions, local media report.

Iran says despite US sanctions, the country’s oil exports hit new highs in the last two months of 2022.

Iran’s overall exports of crude oil, petroleum products, gas, condensates, liquids and LPG have reached 2.23 million barrels of crude oil per day (bpd), which is the same figure as before the sanctions.

They totaled $14.35 billion in the first quarter of the current Iranian year which ends on March 20, averaging $154 million a day, local media reports said, citing the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) figures.  

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