The US has imposed new sanctions related to Iran targeting 15 individuals and entities that engaged in the illicit sales and shipment of Iranian petroleum, petroleum products, and petrochemical products, the US Treasury and State departments announced on Wednesday. The targeted entities, located in Iran, Vietnam, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Hong Kong, have supported the Iranian energy trade despite US sanctions, generating millions of dollars’ worth of illicit revenue. The sanctions will freeze assets of the companies and individuals in the United States, sever their ties with the US financial system, and bar Americans from doing business with them. The new sanctions come a day after US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley said that Iran has added new demands in order to come into compliance with its nuclear agreement with the world powers after indirect talks between the United States and Iran in Doha last week that ended without significant progress. “While the United States is committed to achieving an agreement with Iran that seeks a mutual return to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, we will continue to use all our authorities to enforce sanctions on the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals,” Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson, said in a statement. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement: “The United States has been sincere and steadfast in pursuing a path of meaningful diplomacy to achieve a mutual return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. It is Iran that has, to date, failed to demonstrate a similar commitment to that path. Absent a change in course from Iran, we will continue to use our sanctions authorities to target exports of petroleum, petroleum products, and petrochemical products from Iran.” The talks to revive the nuclear deal have been stalled for several months over Iran’s demand that the US remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization List, and over US economic sanctions against Iran. The talks between Iran and the world powers to revive the 2015 nuclear deal began in Vienna in April 2021.