Washington (dpa) – The United States on Thursday increased pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, levying sanctions on companies in China, Singapore and United Arab Emirates for doing business with Iran. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton imposed the sanctions as part of its cooperation with other countries to keep pressure on Iran to comply with its international nuclear obligations, the State Department said. “The sanctions announced today are an important step toward that goal, as they target the individual companies that help Iran evade these efforts,” officials said. All three companies – Zhenrong in China, Kuo in Singapore and FAL in the UAE – have been supplying refined oil products to Iran, officials said. The sanctions fall under a UN Security Council resolution that recognized the connection between Iran's oil revenues and its funding of its nuclear program. They are not part of a newly enacted round of sanctions being threatened by the US that would affect Iran's central bank and foreign companies that do business with it – a new measure that would directly affect Iran's flow of income from its oil exports. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/t1PNh Tags: Nuclear, sanctions, United States Section: Iran, Latest News, North America
