The US Treasury named a group of companies in Iran, Belgium and China to its sanctions blacklist Thursday for acting as a supply network for Tehran's nuclear enrichment program.

The companies served as a procurement network for Iran's Centrifuge Technology Company (TESA), which produces enrichment centrifuges for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), the Treasury said.

The network was led by Iranian firm Bakhtar Raad Sepahan and its overseas affiliates. It also included a Chinese firm, Henan Jiayuan Aluminum Industry Company, which was also sanctioned.

Other sanctioned entities are front companies based in China and Belgium, the Treasury said.

"Treasury is taking action to shut down an Iranian nuclear procurement network that leverages Chinese- and Belgium-based front companies to acquire critical nuclear materials and benefit the regime's malign ambitions," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement.

"Iran cannot claim benign intent on the world stage while it purchases and stockpiles products for centrifuges."

The sanctions were announced ten days after AEOI said its resumed enrichment operations had surpassed limits placed by the 2015 nuclear deal, a deliberate move to press other parties into keeping their side of the bargain.

US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal between Iran and six world powers in May 2018 and has since reimposed sanctions on many sectors including the crucial oil and financial industries.

Iran demanded the other parties — France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia — take steps to guarantee the economic benefits Iran was promised for the drastic limitations imposed on its nuclear program.

Trump warned last week that sanctions against Iran would be "increased substantially" after Tehran surpassed the enrichment cap in the 2015 deal.

Iran urges Europe to 'accelerate' efforts to save nuclear deal
Tehran (AFP) July 18, 2019 –

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani urged Europe on Thursday to speed up efforts to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, during a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"Europe must accelerate its efforts to realise Iran's legitimate interests and bring about a ceasefire (in Washington's) economic war" against Iran, Rouhani told Macron, according to a statement on the government's official website.

"Iran is determined to keep open all options" for preserving the landmark deal, he added.

He also warned Macron that "missed opportunities" would force Iran to drop further commitments under the deal, after it withdrew from some limits on its nuclear activities in May.

Tehran's May 8 announcement came more than a year after Washington pulled out of the deal between world powers and the Islamic republic, which says it has lost patience with inaction by remaining European partners to the accord.

Iran in May also threatened to take further measures unless the remaining parties to the deal — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — help it circumvent US sanctions, especially to sell its oil.

Tehran has since exceeded limits the deal had set on its enriched uranium and heavy water stockpiles, as well as passing a cap the deal had imposed on its uranium enrichment.

The 4.5 percent enrichment level it reached is well below the more than 90 percent required for a nuclear warhead.

Iran has yet to specify what further steps it may take, and has repeatedly emphasised that its actions can be reversed if European partners deliver on their own commitments.