Following French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit to Beijing, China and France issued a joint statement on Friday in which they supported the political and diplomatic talks to lift sanctions on Iran.

The statement announced that the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany was an important achievement in the field of multilateral diplomacy, accordingly.

This statement also said that France and China were determined to find a diplomatic and political solution to solve Iran's nuclear issue.

According to the joint statement, Beijing and Paris adhere to the non-proliferation regime without undermining the UN Security Council resolutions.

French President Emmanuel Macron is on his visit to China, where, taking advantage of the simultaneous presence of the high-ranking delegations of the two countries in China, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and his French counterpart Catherine Colonna met on Thursday evening.

In the Latest move, the US has imposed a fresh raft of sanctions against, what it calls, firms and vessels that have either transported or sold Iranian petroleum or petrochemical products.

The US Treasury Department�s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the measures on Thursday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken identified the targets of the bans as 11 firms and 20 affiliated shipping vessels, alleging they had facilitated Iran�s petroleum and petrochemical trade.

Two of the sanctioned firms are based in China, while others are headquartered in Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates, according to the OFAC.

The United States lifted some of its sanctions against Iran in 2015, following the conclusion of a nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world countries, including the US itself