Iran says Chinese state oil firm withdraws from $5B deal

China's state oil company has pulled out of a USD 5 billion deal to develop a portion of Iran's massive offshore natural gas field, the Islamic Republic's oil minister said Sunday, an agreement from which France's Total SA earlier withdrew over US sanctions.

The South Pars field deal, struck in the wake of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, appears to be just the latest business casualty of America's pressure campaign on Tehran following President Donald Trump's unilateral withdrawal of the U.S. from the deal.

It also comes as China and the US engage in their own trade war, as Beijing and Washington levy billions of dollars of tariffs on each other's goods.

Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh, quoted by the ministry's SHANA news agency, said Sunday that the China National Petroleum Corp. was "no longer in the project." He did not elaborate or give any reason for the withdrawal.

Officials in Beijing didn't immediately acknowledge their decision. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif separately complained Sunday about the US campaign against Tehran and its impact on foreign investments.

"We have been facing plenty of problems in the field of investment because of the US maximum pressure policy," Zarif told a parliamentary committee, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. "We are trying to remove the problems."