Intel: China tangled in US sanctions web for ties to Iran’s Mahan Air

The United States sanctioned a China-based company today for providing “general sales agent services” for Iran’s Mahan Air.  

“The People’s Republic of China is one of the rapidly dwindling number of countries that welcomes Mahan Air, which ferries weapons and terrorists around the world for the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement upon announcing the sanctions. “Such cooperation has consequences.”

Why it matters:  Relations between the Donald Trump administration and China have rapidly soured as the two sides continue taking shots at each other over the global coronavirus pandemic. Biting sanctions on Iran have formed the crux of Trump’s "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran, but they also allow the United States to penalize other countries for economic relations with Iran that run afoul of unilateral American sanctions.

For instance, Pompeo also noted that Mahan Air facilitates “shipments to Venezuela to support the illegitimate former regime and its desperate attempts to boost energy production, which had fallen due to its own gross mismanagement.”