US sanctions Indian firm for buying Iranian petro products

New Delhi, Oct 1 (Prensa Latina) In the first such move against oil shipments to India, the U.S. Treasury department announced it had imposed sanctions against a Mumbai based petrochemical company amongst several entities accused of selling Iranian petroleum products.

October 1, 2022
17:04

This is the first measure imposed by Washington against an Indian firm and it came a day after the visit of Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to the United States, according to The Hindu newspaper.

Announcing the move on Thursday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it had sanctioned the “international network of companies” that were involved in the sale of “hundreds of millions of dollars” worth Iranian petrochemical products to South Asia and East Asia.

The company, Mumbai based Tibalaji in particular that was accused of purchasing shipments that were then sent to China, is the first Indian entity to face the U.S. designation under unilateral sanctions passed in 2018-19, after the U.S. Trump administration’s decision to walk out of the nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran.

In recent months, New Delhi intensified its ties with Tehran, focusing on connectivity through the International North-South Transport Corridor and the Chabahar port, The Economic Times portal indicated.

In addition, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit held recently in Samarkand to boost connectivity relations.

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