The US State Department has announced new sanctions on ‘Iran-China oil trade’, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement, it said that the sanctions applied to “several entities, an individual, and a vessel involved in the trade of Iranian petroleum, petroleum products, and petrochemical products”.

The sanctions target Qingdao Haiye Oil Terminal Co, Ltd, a China-based petroleum terminal operator that the State Department said “has imported tens of millions of barrels” of crude oil under unilateral US sanctions.

“Haiye has enabled the flow of billions of dollars to Tehran that has relied on sophisticated evasion schemes, accepting cargo from vessels conducting illicit ship-to-ship transfers with sanctioned vessels,” the State Department said.