Washington sanctions 21 Iran-backed firms

The US took steps Tuesday to make it harder for Iran to skirt sanctions, naming nearly two dozen firms in six countries as backed by Tehran.

US law prohibits American citizens from doing business with the government of Iran and the Obama administration named these firms "to mitigate the risk that such entities pose to legitimate transactions," the US Treasury said.

The 21 firms included two Belarus-based banks, two Germany-based investment firms, and mining and engineering companies in Japan, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy and Iran.

The decision came after Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a top Republican representative on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Monday that the US should immediately impose sanctions on Russia and China.

According to her, companies run by the Russian and Chinese governments had invested "huge sums" in Iran's energy sector, "effectively bankrolling" Tehran's alleged nuclear weapons program.

China in June signed off on fresh UN sanctions on Iran due to the "lack of compliance" by the Islamic republic with its nuclear program. Beijing insists that the Iranian nuclear issue should be approached by diplomatic means.

However, the US, EU, Canada and Australia announced additional sanctions on Iran, targeting the Islamic republic's energy and financial sectors, as well as its shipping industries.

Japan also joined the new UN sanctions Tuesday and said it is considering its own additional sanctions against Iran, top government spokesman, Yoshito Sengoku, said, according to AFP.

"Don't push Iran to the dead corner," Li Weijian, an expert on Iranian issues from the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, warned Tuesday.

"If China and Russia also impose tough sanctions on Iran, there can be only two results: Tehran bends, or it becomes another North Korea," Li told the Global Times. "But Iran seems unlikely to yield to Western pressures."

In a separate report, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday denounced US President Barack Obama's failure to live up to his promise of change, vowing the capitalist system in the US is "nearing its end," the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Corp said.

Ahmadinejad also said Monday that he was ready to hold talks with Obama in front of the media at the end of September, when he plans to go to New York to attend the UN General Assembly, the Iranian Press TV reported Tuesday.

In a separate report, Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi is heading to China today, seeking new investments in the country's energy sector including funding for new refineries, AFP quoted a report by the oil ministry's news agency Shana as saying.

Agencies - Global Times