Tasnim – The Trump administration has delayed its new sanctions on Iran’s petrochemical sector, said people familiar with the matter.

The US Treasury had planned to implement new sanctions in mid-May that for the first time detailed which Iranian petrochemical entities are off limits to foreign companies, the people familiar with the matter said, and could still move forward with them, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A spokesman for the US Treasury Department said its longstanding policy isn’t to comment on prospective actions.

Petrochemical sales are Iran’s second biggest export after crude oil.

On April 22, the US administration said in a statement, in a bid to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero, buyers of Iranian oil must stop purchases by May 1 or would face sanctions.

The move ended six months of waivers, which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers -- Turkey, China, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan -- to continue importing limited volumes.

Last year, the US president withdrew Washington from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was reached between Iran and six world powers in 2015. Afterwards, Washington re-imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the deal.