(Yicai Global) Nov. 6 -- The United States has re-imposed sanctions against Iran but exempted China and seven other countries and regions from importing petroleum from the Islamic Republic.

Sanctions were slapped against 700 individuals, entities, financial, shipping, aviation and energy sectors in Iran, including 50 Iranian banks and their branches at home and abroad, Iran Air and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, the US Department of Treasury announced yesterday.

This is the second round of US sanctions against Iran after the US withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal, in May this year, China's official Xinhua news agency reported on its website today.

The US will freeze the assets of those sanctioned in the US, according to the Treasury's announcement. The sanctions are intended to force Iran to agree on a new deal that will ban it from any nuclear possession, the Treasury said.

The US is forcing other countries to cut off ties with Iran and has threatened to impose sanctions on them as well. However, it allowed China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and Taiwan, China to continue to import crude from Iran for now, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday.

Unless Iran meets the 12 demands proposed by the US, it will relentlessly exert pressure on Iran, Pompeo added.

Iran and the P5+1, the United Nations Security Council's five permanent members --the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China -- plus Germany, reached the Iran nuclear deal in July 2015. Under the deal, Iran had agreed to limit its nuclear program and the international community would lift the sanctions against Iran.

In May, President Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw from the agreement. In August, the US re-imposed sanctions on Iran in non-energy sectors including finance, metal, mineral resources and automobile.

Iran has strongly denounced the US policy.

Editor: Bivash