The Iranian nuclear deal has become one of the cornerstones of the Obama administration, enough that ransom payments were characterized in different ways to hide exactly how they were paid. It is a simple attempt, gone wrong, to avoid tarnishing the deal with Iran.
So too, the ZTE sanctions levied in March and put on hold the week after, are avoiding the tarnishing of China's second largest electronics company which sold electronics to Iran while the rest of world did not because it honored the sanctions. There was no doubt at the time those sanctions were let that the Chinese government allowed ZTE to violate the sanctions with Iran and a few other countries. ZTE internal documents outlining the scheme to avoid sanctions were published along with the announcement of the sanctions. In June, records from Huawei were requested, suggesting that they were also being investigated as a second company doing the same things - actually using the same documents that explained how to not get caught.
The sanctions from March were twice delayed, first "to give ZTE a chance to restore its reputation" and this time, "to give additional time for the investigation" until November 28. This is a clear attempt to dump it on the next President and avoid the possibility of tainting the Iran agreement again. I would guess that it will be delayed one more time- at least until the end of January. It is clearly politics over the national interest.
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