April 30 (UPI) -- The United States has sanctioned a network of firms accused of procuring ballistic missile propellant ingredients for Iran, as the Trump administration and the Tehran regime hold negotiations on the Middle Eastern country's nuclear weapons program.
The U.S. departments of State and Treasury announced the sanctions Tuesday against six individuals and six entities based in Iran and China.
They are accused by the Trump administration of facilitating the procurement of sodium perchlorate and dioctyl sebacate from China for Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
According to U.S. officials, both chemicals are used in solid propellant rocket motors, which are commonly utilized for ballistic missiles.
Related
"Iran's aggressive development of missiles and other weapons capabilities imperils the safety of the United States and our partners," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
"It also destabilizes the Middle East, and violates the global agreements intended to prevent the proliferation of these technologies."
The punitive measures are the latest round of sanctions the United States has imposed specifically targeting Iran since President Donald Trump reinstated his so-called maximum pressure campaign on Iran from his first term that failed to bring about a new nuclear deal with the Middle Eastern country.
Relations between Tehran and the Washington plummeted in 2018 when Trump imposed sanctions on Iran and pulled the United States from an Obama-era multinational accord aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Calling the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action "defective at its core," Trump withdrew the United States from it and sought to use sanctions and other punitive measures to coerce Iran into returning to the negotiating table for a new deal.
Instead, Iran escalated its nuclear weapons program and currently needs as little as a week to produce enough weapons-grade highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb, according to a Congressional Research Service report from last month.
Now, the two sides have been holding talks in Oman, though nothing concrete has come of them yet.
Following the most recent talks, which were held on Saturday, Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi of Oman said on X that both Iran and the United States had "identified a shared aspiration to reach agreement based on mutual respect and enduring commitments."
"Talks will continue next week with further high-level meeting provisionally scheduled for May 3rd," he said.
