The United States is placing a leading Chinese oil importer on its sanctions blacklist for trading in Iranian crude, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday. “As part of that maximum pressure campaign, I am announcing that the United States is imposing sanctions on the Chinese entity Zhuhai Zhenrong and its chief executive Youmin Li,” Pompeo said in a speech. “They violated US law by accepting crude oil,” he said. The announcement was the latest step by Washington to ratchet up economic pressure on Tehran over its alleged military activities in the Middle East and its nuclear programme by taking aim at business partners. “We’ve said all along that any sanction will indeed be enforced. We can’t tolerate more money going to ayatollahs, putting American soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, putting their lives at risk. It’s too important.” Zhuhai Zhenrong and Chinese state refiner Sinopec are responsible for nearly all the Iranian crude that China imports. Bloomberg reported that China took in about 12 million tonnes of Iranian crude in the first five months of this year. Britain holds crisis talks over Iran’s seizure of tanker It said that some of that crude is being held in “bonded storage” and not passing through Chinese customs, possibly to avoid the application of sanctions. Analysts have said that closer cooperation between China and Iran, especially on economic matters, is inevitable given they are both now targets of rising US antagonism. Mohsen Shariatinia, an assistant professor of international relations at the Shaid Beheshti National University in Tehran, said in May that the United States’ actions had made enhanced cooperation between Beijing and Tehran “not a choice, but a necessity”. US officials push for sanctions on China over oil purchases from Iran “China and Iran are facing a common threat now,” he said. “The US’ long-arm jurisdiction, already fully applied against Iran, will gradually apply to China as well.”