US rejects sanctions imposed by Iran, grants waivers to India and seven others

By Humeyra Pamuk and Jane Chung

WASHINGTON / SEOUL (Reuters) – The United States reiterated their sanctions Monday for smother the Iranian oil and sea sector, while temporarily allowing large customers such as China and India to continue buying crude from the Islamic Republic.

After giving up on Iran's 2015 nuclear deal, US President Donald Trump is attempting to paralyze the oil-dependent Iranian economy and compels Tehran not to cancel only its ambitions and its ballistic missile program, but its support for proxies in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East.

Washington is committed to putting a definitive end to Iranian crude oil purchases, but for the moment Eight countries – China, India, South Korea, Japan, Japan Italy, Greece, Taiwan and Turkey – can continue to import for the moment without penalty. Crude oil exports account for one-third of the revenue of the Iranian government.

"More than 20 importing countries have already reduced their imports of crude oil to zero, thus removing more than one million barrels of crude per day," said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. told reporters during a briefing. "The regime in place since May has lost more than $ 2.5 billion in oil revenue."

"We have decided to allocate temporary allocations to a handful of countries sensitive to the circumstances and ensuring a well-supplied oil market," Pompeo said. "Each of these countries has already significantly reduced their purchases of Iranian crude over the past six months."

The exemptions are designed to last up to 180 days.

US. Officials said that countries with a temporary exemption from sanctions would deposit Iran's receipts in blocked accounts and that Tehran could use these funds for humanitarian purposes.

Iranian exports peaked at 2.8 million barrels a day in April, including 300,000 barrels a day. condensate day, a lighter oil that, when it is underground, tends to exist as a gas. Since then, exports have fallen overall to 1.8 million bpd, according to consulting firm Wood Mackenzie Energy, which expects a further fall in volumes to 1 million bpd.

Oil prices exceeded $ 85 per barrel in October, fearing a sharp decline in Iranian exports. . Since then, prices have fallen as it was expected that some buyers would benefit from exemptions and increased supply from the world's largest producers.

On Monday, Brent crude was up more than $ 1, peaking at $ 73.92 a barrel. Futures on US crude increased by about 1% to $ 63.85 per barrel. [O/R]

The sanctions cover 50 Iranian banks and subsidiaries, more than 200 people and vessels in the shipping sector, and target Tehran's national airline, Iran Air, as well as more than 65 of its aircraft, according to a statement from the US Treasury. 19659003] (Click here to see a chart on Iranian oil: 40 years of revolution, war, sanctions and bans.)

Iran's largest oil buyers during past years have been China, India, South Korea, Turkey, Italy and the United States. The United Arab Emirates and Japan.

Tehran promised to challenge them, while Iran's leaders dismissed concerns over the impact on the economy.

"It will be difficult for Iran to optimize its exports." when almost all of the oil trade is offset in US dollars, putting many domestic oil companies, traders and banks out of the reach of international oil companies, "said Homayoun Falakshahi, an badyst at Wood Mackenzie.

(Report of Jane Chung in SEOUL, Kaori Kaneko and Osamu Tsuki mori in TOKYO and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING, additional report by Nidhi Verma in NEW DELHI and Lesley Wroughton in WASHINGTON, Writing of Humeyra Pamuk and Henning Gloystein and Dmitry Zhdannikov; Gaffen and Bill Trott)

This story was not edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by automatic feeding.