The export oil pipelines at an oil facility on Kharg Island of Iran (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Bushehr Petrochemical Company and Shiraz Petrochemical Company are among the new targets.

The new sanctions also target several companies based in China and United Arab Emirates. In addition, a number of oil tankers from China’s Hong Kong and Panama are also on the sanctions list.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the sanctions target 11 firms and 20 affiliated shipping vessels that have facilitated Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical trade. These companies will be banned from doing business with Americans while their assets will be frozen in the US.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York accused the Biden administration of basically repeating the failed maximum pressure policy of former President Donald Trump’s government.

Iran has gotten used to these sanctions, but if the US wants to return to the Iran nuclear deal one day, it will be challenging for the US government to lift all of them, said Iran’s UN mission.