北京方面周四对美国制裁购买伊朗石油国家的威胁予以驳斥。外交部发言人郭嘉坤（音译）在例行记者会上表示：“中方反对未经联合国安理会授权的非法单边制裁。”
此前，美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特表示，华盛顿准备对购买伊朗石油的行为实施次级制裁。他将此举描述为上周达成临时停火前，美国和以色列对伊朗实施数周军事打击的“金融对等手段”。贝森特在记者会上提到：“我们认为这种在海峡的封锁会使中方购买行为暂停……我可以告诉你们，两家中国银行收到了美国财政部的信函，我们告知他们，如果我们能证明伊朗资金流经这些账户，我们将愿意实施次级制裁。”但他并未点名具体银行。
这些制裁威胁以及从周一开始的美国海军封锁，是旨在挤压伊朗石油收入并向德黑兰施压的“极限施压”行动的一部分。上周日在巴基斯坦举行的第一轮美伊谈判未能在核心问题上达成一致，包括伊朗核计划限制和制裁解除。目前霍尔木兹海峡的通航仍受限制，该海峡承载着全球约四分之一的海运石油和五分之一的液化天然气。美国中央司令部表示，目前没有任何船职突破封锁，所有试图通过的10艘船只均被劝返。
Beijing on Thursday brushed off the United States' threats of sanctions on countries that buy Iranian oil."China opposes illegal unilateral sanctions without authorization of the United Nations Security Council," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters during the ministry's regular press briefing.The remarks came after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington was prepared to impose secondary sanctions over purchases of Iranian oil, describing the move as the "financial equivalent" of the weeks of U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran before a temporary ceasefire was reached last week."We believe this blockade in the straits—there will be a pause of Chinese buying—but I will tell you that two Chinese banks received letters from the U.S. Treasury...we told them that if we can prove that there's Iranian money flowing through your accounts then we are willing to put on secondary sanctions," he told reporters, without identifying the banks.Newsweek reached out to the Chinese embassy in the U.S. and Iran's Foreign Ministry via email for comment.The sanctions threat, alongside the U.S. blockade that began Monday, is part of a maximalist campaign to squeeze Iran’s oil revenues—a central pillar of its economy—and pressure Tehran in ongoing negotiations. The first round of U.S.-Iran talks in Pakistan ended without agreement on Sunday, with both sides signaling gaps remained over core issues, including limits on Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions relief.The blockade further restricts traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a key conduit for roughly one-quarter of global seaborne oil and one-fifth of liquefied natural gas, after nearly seven weeks of disruption caused by Iran’s closure of the waterway in response to U.S. and Israeli attacks. No vessels have breached the blockade, and all 10 vessels that attempted to were turned back, the U.S. military’s Central Command said Wednesday.The world's second-largest economy has a strong interest in keeping the waterway open and energy flows stable.While Beijing does not officially purchase sanctioned Iranian oil, it remains the destination for more than 80 percent of Iran’s crude exports, according to analytics firm Kpler. Iranian oil accounted for about 13.4 percent of China’s roughly 10.27 million barrels per day of seaborne imports, typically shipped via so-called “shadow fleet” vessels and offloaded onto other vessels for transfer to Chinese refineries...."Beijing has built a layered evasion architecture that protects sanctioned oil trade at the two points where Western enforcement is designed to bite hardest: the origin of the cargo and the settlement of value," the House of Representatives' House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party wrote in a March report.Although China is less exposed to the shock than many of its neighbors due to its investments in renewable energy, alternative supply sources, and large strategic petroleum reserves, the disruption is pushing up