Washington Puts Pressure On India To Stop Buying Oil From Iran

Washington DC: Donald Trump has re-imposed US sanctions on Iran after withdrawing from the historic 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal in May. The US wants to put pressure on Iran by reducing its oil sales, and is thereby willing to work with countries that intend to reduce their oil imports from Iran. According to an official in the Trump administration, the US will not be granting any waivers to countries such as India and Turkey, considering Iran is India’s third largest oil supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

After withdrawing from the nuclear deal, the US had given foreign companies 90-180 days to wind up their business operations in Iran. Now, the Trump administration is increasing the heat on Iran by putting pressure on India and China among other countries to completely halt oil sales from Iran by November, 2018.

“We are not looking to grant licenses or waivers, because doing so would substantially reduce pressure on Iran, and this is a campaign of imposing pressure,” said Brian Hook, Director of Policy Planning at the State Department at a news conference. “And so, we are not looking to grant licenses or waivers broadly on the re-imposition of sanctions, because we believe pressure is critical to achieve our national security objectives,” he added.

The first set of sanctions will be active on August 6 and will target automotive, gold trade and other metals. The second round will be applied on November 4 and will target Iran’s energy and petroleum transactions, and transactions with the Central Bank of Iran, Hook informed.