The US Treasury added a group of companies in Iran, Belgium and China to its sanctions blacklist Thursday (July 18th) for acting as a supply network for Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme, AFP reported.
The companies served as a procurement network for Iran's Centrifuge Technology Company (TESA), which produces enrichment centrifuges for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), the Treasury said.
The network was led by Iranian firm Bakhtar Raad Sepahan and its overseas affiliates. It also included a Chinese firm, Henan Jiayuan Aluminum Industry Company, which also was sanctioned.
Other sanctioned entities are front companies based in China and Belgium, the Treasury said.
"Treasury is taking action to shut down an Iranian nuclear procurement network that leverages Chinese- and Belgium-based front companies to acquire critical nuclear materials and benefit the regime's malign ambitions," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
"Iran cannot claim benign intent on the world stage while it purchases and stockpiles products for centrifuges," he said.
The sanctions were announced 10 days after AEOI said its resumed enrichment operations had surpassed limits placed by the 2015 nuclear deal.
