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US sanctions target Iran's ballistic missile ties with China

The latest barrage of US economic sanctions came just hours after Iran unveiled what it claimed to be its first hypersonic missile.
Iranian soldiers stand next to an Iranian Kheibar missile (R) and a Shahab-3 missile (L) during a rally marking al-Quds (Jerusalem) day, in street at the capital Tehran, on April 29, 2022. - An initiative started by the late Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Quds Day is held annually on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

The Biden administration unveiled new economic sanctions on Tuesday targeting companies and individuals in China and Iran for facilitating procurements for Tehran’s ballistic missile program.

The US Treasury Department designated six entities and seven individuals in Iran, Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China in the latest attempt at deploying economic weapons to clamp down on Tehran’s conventional arms program.

Among them was Iran’s defense attache in Beijing, Davoud Damghani, who “coordinated defense-related procurements from the [People’s Republic of China] for Iranian end-users,” the Treasury said in a statement on Tuesday.

Among the other designees were Hangzhou-based Zhejiang Qingji Industries Co., Ltd., which the United States accused of having sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of centrifuges to Iran’s Parchin Chemical Industries (PCI) via intermediaries, including Iranian firm P.B. Sadr, which was previously hit with US sanctions last year.

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