Asian firms rapped over Iran sales
From CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott
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Iran is under mounting international pressure to allow further inspections of its nuclear program.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. has slapped sanctions on a Chinese company and extended existing sanctions on several other Chinese and North Korean firms for selling sensitive arms technology to Iran, the U.S. State Department says.
According to a notice in the U.S. Federal Register, the new sanctions on the Tain Foreign Trade General Corporation fall under the 2000 Iran Non-proliferation Act and are valid for two years.
The legislation punishes companies for sales involving missiles or weapons of mass destruction.
The sanctions prohibit the U.S. government from doing any business with those companies and from issuing licenses for the purchase of sensitive arms technology from the United States.
Five more Chinese companies -- Zibo Chemical Equipment Plant (also known as Chemet Global Ltd.), South Industries Science and Technology Trading Company Ltd., Liyang Yunlong Chemical Equipment Group Company, China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO), and China Precision Machinery Import/Export Corporation (CPMIEC) -- and North Korean company, Changgwang Sinyong Corporation, also were penalized with the same set of sanctions.
All five are currently under existing sanctions for similar arms sales to either Iran or Pakistan.
The notice comes on the heels of a visit to Washington by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who held talks this week with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage on North Korea and other issues.
State Department officials said the timing was a coincidence and the issue of the sanctions didn't come up.
