UNITED NATIONS: The United States (US) on Wednesday announced sanctions on Chinese companies for buying Iranian oil, stepping up pressure despite European attempts to arrange talks between Washington and Tehran.
Speaking to a pressure group opposed to the Iranian regime on the sidelines of the United Nations, Pompeo said the actions were in response to violations of unilateral US sanctions.
"We’re telling China, and all nations -- know that we will sanction every violation of sanctions of all activity," Pompeo told United Against a Nuclear Iran. He said that sanctions were being placed both on the companies and on their chief executives. Pompeo said that the United States was also aiming to split the elite Revolutionary Guards from the rest of the Iranian company.
The unit, known formally as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is in charge of protecting the regime and has vast business holdings.
"The United States will intensify our efforts to educate countries and companies on the risk of doing business with IRGC entities, and we will punish them if they persist in defiance of our warnings," Pompeo said.
The actions come as France leads last-minute efforts to arrange a meeting at the United Nations between US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani to defuse tensions. In response to sanctions, China is talking tough, with state-owned oil importers insisting they will pay no attention to the US prohibition on buying Iranian crude. But when it comes to the crunch, China’s big oil companies may well decide that complying with the US ban is the lesser of two evils.
The risk is that if they continue to buy shipments of Iranian oil, they could find themselves the target of secondary US sanctions aimed at disrupting their ability to make or receive international payments in US dollars. For businesses operating in US dollar-denominated global energy markets, such secondary sanctions could prove crippling. At first glance, the threat of US secondary action against Chinese buyers of Iranian oil might not seem much of a danger.
After all, China can buy Iranian oil through barter, or settle its purchases in yuan, avoiding the need to make payments in US dollars.
Beijing even has two specialist institutions established to do just that – Zhuhai Zhenrong and Bank of Kunlun. Both were targeted under the last round of US sanctions against Iran, which was lifted at the end of 2016. But with a few links to the global financial system, they were little affected, and China continued to buy Iranian oil at a rate of around 500,000 barrels a day regardless of Washington’s ban.
US President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani face their last chance for a historic meeting as European leaders raced to arrange talks aimed at defusing soaring tensions.
With world leaders gathered in New York for the annual UN General Assembly, French President Emmanuel Macron made a fresh push for Trump to meet Rouhani.
Escorting a smiling Rouhani to a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Macron said that time was running short.
"If he leaves the country without meeting with President Trump, honestly this is a lost opportunity because he will not come back in a few months," Macron said.
"And President Trump will not go to Tehran, so they have to meet now," he said, as Johnson voiced agreement.
Macron has spearheaded efforts to arrange a historic summit, selling Trump on the idea last month as he hopes to salvage a 2015 denuclearization accord with Iran.
"As long as Iran´s menacing behavior continues, sanctions will not be lifted. They will be tightened," a grim-faced Trump told the General Assembly.
"All nations have a duty to act. No responsible government should subsidise Iran´s bloodlust," he said.
Trump is set to address a news conference on Wednesday that will no doubt be dominated by the impeachment moves.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ruled out negotiations with the United States so long as sanctions are in place and said he was not interested in a "memento photo" with President Donald Trump.
"I would like to announce that our response to any negotiation under sanctions is negative," Rouhani said in an address to the UN General Assembly.
"Memento photos are the final stage of negotiations, not the first one," he said.
He doubted the sincerity of the United States to negotiate, pointing to Trump administration officials´ boasts of damage inflicted by sanctions on Iran.
"We cannot believe the invitation to negotiations by people who claim to have applied the harshest sanctions in history against the dignity and prosperity of our nation," he said.
"How can someone believe them when the silent killing of a great nation, and pressure on the lives of 83 million Iranians, especially women and children, are welcomed by American government officials?"
"The Iranian nation will never, ever forget and forgive these crimes and these criminals," he said.