UNITED NATIONS -- The Trump administration Wednesday barred senior Iranian government officials from entering the United States, just hours after a failed attempt to renew diplomacy with President Hassan Rouhani as he attended an annual gathering of world leaders in New York.
The order came after a new round of American economic penalties against China, Iran's largest oil customer to further squeeze the Iranian economy and force Tehran into new negotiations to limit its nuclear and military programs.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States is still open to talking to Iran and hopes to tamp down inflamed tensions after leaders in the United States, Europe and Arab nations blamed Tehran for attacks on oil fields in Saudi Arabia this month.
"We want peace, and we want a peaceful resolution," Pompeo said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon with President Donald Trump. "In the end, it will be up to the Iranians to make that decision whether they choose violence and hate."
The White House announced the new travel restrictions on senior Iranian government officials and their family members shortly after the news conference ended. In a statement, it described the Iranian government as a state sponsor of terrorism that threatened the stability of the Middle East and beyond.
Rouhani and more than 80 of his top diplomats and aides were in New York attending the annual U.N. General Assembly. However, the travel ban was not expected to force them to leave. The United States generally issues visas to allow foreign leaders to go to U.N. headquarters but tightly restricts their movements while in New York.
A similar travel ban was issued against members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government, which the Trump administration is trying to oust.
In a morning speech to the General Assembly, Rouhani appeared to shut down any attempt at detente with what he described as an "enemy who uses sanction and poverty as a tool." He also devoted considerable time to berating the Trump administration for inviting him to talk while threatening Iran.
The new economic sanctions were announced by Pompeo at a conference sponsored by United Against Nuclear Iran, an advocacy group that Tehran this week said it was considering declaring a terrorist organization.
Pompeo said the sanctions would punish six Chinese companies and five business executives for defying American financial restrictions that aim to stop Iran from exporting oil. The targeted businesses are an oil company and five shipping companies, two of which are subsidiaries of a large state-owned conglomerate, China COSCO Shipping. But the parent company is not a target.
China has been the biggest foreign buyer of Iran's oil, a crucial Iranian export. Last year, roughly 6% of China's oil imports came from Iran. But in the past two months, Chinese state-owned companies have begun importing more oil from Saudi Arabia under tightening pressure from the Trump administration.
The administration's so-called maximum pressure campaign "has not only failed to secure a better deal with Iran on its nuclear activities and problematic Iranian regional behavior but actually created problems that did not previously exist," said Andrew Miller, a former State Department official who is deputy director for policy at the Project on Middle East Democracy.
Information for this article was contributed by Farnaz Fassihi, Lara Jakes and Edward Wong of The New York Times; and by Edith M. Lederer and Aya Batrawy of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/27/2019