"Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating a 'teapot' oil refinery and its chief executive officer for purchasing and refining hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian crude oil, including from vessels linked to the Foreign Terrorist Organization, Ansarallah, commonly known as the Houthis, and the Iranian Ministry of Defense of Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL)," the US Treasury Department said in a statement on Thursday.
"OFAC is additionally imposing sanctions on 19 entities and vessels responsible for shipping millions of barrels of Iranian oil, comprising part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” of tankers supplying teapot refineries like Luqing Petrochemical," the report added.
Donald Trump pulled his country out of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal unilaterally in May 2018 and reasserted his futile Maximum Pressure Campaign against Tehran when he returned to the White House earlier this year. Iran has said it will not negotiate under pressure. It has also stressed that it will respond to any military threats with might.
The sanctions come while the US president has sent a letter to Iran calling for negotiations.
The Iranian foreign minister said earlier on Thursday that Tehran will respond to Trump's letter in the coming days through relevant channels, saying that the letter contains threats more than than alleged benefits.
The minister said Iran has held talks indirectly during the different previous rounds of the talks with the three European states, the UK, Germany and France with the aim of the nuclear deal (JCPOA) revival, adding that Iran is currently in talks with Russia and China too to discuss the nuclear deal issue.
"As long as the threat exists, our policy is not direct negotiations while we continue indirect negotiations," he continued.
MNA
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