Malaysia ready to engage US on concerns over Iran’s oil shipments

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia is prepared to hold engagements with the United States to understand concerns it raised over the role of Malaysian service providers in the shipment of sanctioned Iranian oil, its government spokesperson said on Wednesday.

A senior US treasury official said this week the United States saw Iran's capacity to move its oil as being reliant on service providers based in Malaysia.

The official also said the United States was trying to prevent Malaysia from becoming a jurisdiction where the Palestinian militant group Hamas could both fundraise and then move money.

Malaysia government spokesperson Fahmi Fadzil said the country was prepared to engage with its US counterparts to better understand its concerns and stressed that it would comply with United Nations sanctions.

"We want to assert that Malaysia, as a sovereign nation, we comply with UN sanctions," he told reporters.

"But when it comes to unilaterally applied sanctions, then I think we have to assess this situation."

Brian Nelson, the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and Neil MacBride, Treasury General Counsel, are expected to visit Malaysia this week as part of efforts to clamp down on financing for militant groups routed through Southeast Asia.