US imposes fresh sanctions on Iran over apparent nuclear escalations

Blinken says Tehran has expanded uranium enrichment project in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose'

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has announced fresh sanctions against Iran's petroleum sector in response to what he described as an expansion of the country's nuclear programme which has provoked renewed fears that it is preparing to build an atomic bomb.

The embargoes - on three unnamed entities involved in the transport of Iranian petroleum or petrochemical products - were announced amid a chorus of warnings of a renewed conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Iran's proxy Hezbollah, the powerful Shia group that dominates Lebanon.