Iran has been living with Western sanctions for almost 40 years, and never have so many sanctions been imposed so quickly as against Russia. Although their effect is limited, there is little alternative.

Iran knows it, China knows it and apparently, so does the US government: despite existing sanctions against the oil industry of the Islamic Republic, oil from Iran is being shipped to China in record volumes.

Javier Blas, an opinion columnist who covers energy and commodities for Bloomberg, recently described how Iranian oil ends up in China.

“If you believe the Chinese government, the country doesn’t import any oil from Iran. Zero. Not a barrel. Instead, it imports lots of Malaysian crude. So much that, according to official Chinese customs data, it somehow buys more than twice as much Malaysian oil as Malaysia actually produces.”

By rebranding Iranian oil, Malaysia became China’s fourth-largest foreign oil supplier last year, behind Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq.

Read more: dw.com

Photo: dw.com