Reuters:

The U.S. on Thursday issued new sanctions intended to hit Iran's oil exports, including what the State Department said were the first U.S. measures targeting a Chinese "teapot refinery" processing the crude.

It was Washington's fourth round of sanctions on Iran's oil sales since President Donald Trump said in February he was re-imposing a "maximum pressure" campaign including efforts to drive down the country's exports to zero.

Trump aims to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and funding militant groups.

The refinery the Treasury targeted for sanctions is China-based Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical Co., Ltd.

"So-called 'teapot' refinery purchases of Iranian oil provide the primary economic lifeline for the Iranian regime, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror and the primary backer of the murderous Houthis in Yemen," U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a post on X.

"This will be the United States’ first designation of a teapot refinery," the State Department said in a press release.

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