United States sanctions six companies in relations with the Iranian petrochemical sector

The Cold War between Iran and the United States that has been going on since Donald Trump came to the White House has a new chapter. This Thursday, the United States government sanctioned six entities for their support of Triliance Petrochemincal, an Iranian company that sells petrochemical products and which was already sanctioned by the US Treasury in January this year. The six Iranian companies sanctioned are joined by several Chinese and UAE companies for collaborating in violating the embargo on the Islamic Republic's oil exports.
"Iran must stop exploiting its natural resources to finance terrorism and destruction in the region," wrote US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The sanctioned firms operating outside Iran are Hong Kong-based Jingho Technology and Dynapex Energy Limited, and UAE-based Petrotech FZE and Trio Energy.
Zagros Petrochemical Company, agreed to sell "hundreds of thousands of metric tons of Iranian petrochemicals" to Triliance by 2020, according to the US government. According to the US Treasury, in a statement it explained that the companies outside Iran are foreign sales agents for Triliance Petrochemical, becoming "a key source of revenue for the Iranian regime, helping to finance its destabilising support for corrupt regimes and terrorist groups throughout the Middle East and, more recently, Venezuela".

The sanctions would freeze all assets held by companies under US jurisdiction. They would generally prohibit US companies and citizens from dealing with them and potentially subject non-US financial institutions that facilitate "significant transactions" to US sanctions.

Tensions between the United States and Iran have increased since the Trump Administration's decision to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal and the subsequent re-imposition of US sanctions on Tehran.
On 15 April the Pentagon accused Iran of conducting "dangerous manoeuvres" in international Gulf waters. Donald Trump, on Twitter, warned the Iranians of these moves: "I have instructed the US Navy to destroy all Iranian vessels if they harass our ships", wrote the US President.

For its part, Tehran accuses Washington of having "blocked the passage" of an Iranian ship at the beginning of April. The Iranian foreign minister, MOhamad Yavad Zarif, criticised on his personal Twitter account the fact that US forces are being deployed 7,000 miles from his country, "provoking" Iranian sailors on their "own shores of the Persian Gulf". These have been repeated on several occasions in recent weeks with Iranian ships arriving on the Venezuelan coast to load oil, according to the US authorities. This escalation originated this year on 3 January when the United States ordered the death of Qasem Soleimani, a strongman in Iranian politics and the main commander of the Islamic Republic.