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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran's foreign ministry on Thursday condemned a fresh wave of United States sanctions against the Islamic republic's petroleum industry as a 'blatant assault' on the Iranian people.
The US State Department on Wednesday slapped sanctions on 20 entities involved in Iran's petroleum trade, as well 'five vessel management companies and a petroleum wholesale company for their involvement in the transport and purchase of Iranian petroleum, petroleum products, and petrochemical products,' it said in a statement.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei condemned the sanctions as 'clear evidence of the hostility of American decision-makers towards the Iranian people.'
'The Iranian people, aware of malicious intentions of the aggressor sanctions, who have no goal other than to weaken Iran and violate the fundamental rights of every Iranian, will stand firm with all their might to protect their dignity and interests,' Baghaei said.
He accused Washington of a 'chronis addiction' to unilateralism, further slamming the use of 'pressure tactics in pursuit of such illegitimate goals.'
The sanctions entities include companies and vessels based in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, China, India, Comoros, and Gabon, according to the statement.
On Wednesday, the US Treasury impose sanctions on a shipping fleet controlled by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, the son of Ali Shamkhani, a top political aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
'The United States will continue to impose maximum pressure on the Iranian regime … until Iran accepts a deal that advances regional peace and security and in which Iran forgoes all aspirations for a nuclear weapon,' the State Department said.
Washington on June 24 brokered a ceasefire to the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later declared victory, claiming that US President Donald Trump had exaggerated the destruction caused by US military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Under a 2015 deal with world powers - formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - Iran agreed to curb its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for much-needed relief from crippling sanctions.
But the deal began unraveling in 2018 when Washington, under President Donald Trump's first term, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and reimposed biting sanctions on the Islamic republic, which in turn began rolling back on its nuclear commitments.
Before the war with Israel, Iran had five rounds of Oman-mediated indirect nuclear talks with the US.
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