WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- The U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday blacklisted three companies for allegedly attempting to provide support to Iran’s advanced conventional weapons and missile programs via exports through China.
The department’s Bureau of Industry and Security added the three companies to its entity list for alleged China ties and what it called as “actions contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States”.
The updated list, published in the Federal Register, claimed that “these companies have supplied or attempted to supply U.S.-origin data-x-items that could provide material support to Iran’s advanced conventional weapons and missile programs to entities” sanctioned by the U.S.
The three blacklisted companies are Wavelet Electronics, Comtel Technology Limited and HSJ Electronics.
Their inclusion on the list prevents them from exporting, re-exporting or conducting in-country equipment transfers.
In addition, the Commerce Department blacklisted a network of eight other companies allegedly providing material support to Iran’s defense industry with exports through China, Malaysia, Turkey and Georgia.
The companies in that network include Hong Kong Cheung Wah

Electronics Technology Company Limited, Hyper Systems Union Limited, Shenzhen Rion Technology, Thundsea Electric Limited, Genesis Engineering, Integrated Scientific Microwave Technology and SAEROS Safety ERO Company.
The blacklisting comes amid a broader tranche of Commerce Department sanctions over the export of biotechnology to China reportedly “for military applications and human rights abuses”.
“We cannot allow U.S. commodities, technologies and software that support medical science and biotechnical innovation be diverted towards uses contrary to U.S. national security,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.
“The U.S. will continue to stand strong against efforts by [China] and Iran to turn tools that can help humanity prosper into implements that threaten global security and stability,” he said.
China, a signatory to the Iran nuclear deal, called on the United States to remove sanctions on Tehran that violate the agreement last month when talks resumed in Vienna to revive the accord, which remains on life support.
Since the seventh round of talks began in Vienna in November, the negotiating sides have remained at an impasse over disagreements regarding the sanctions that Washington must remove in order to come back into compliance with the agreement.
Iran began steadily scaling back its compliance with the 2015 accord following former president Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in 2018, which came with the reinstatement of U.S. sectoral sanctions on the Iranian economy.
The Joe Biden administration also sanctioned dozens of Iranian officials and entities for what it labeled as “serious” human rights abuses earlier this month.