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Carol Morello
National Rapporteur on Foreign Policy and Department of State
The United States will allow eight countries to continue to temporarily import Iranian oil after the reimposition of sanctions next week, by blacklisting hundreds of companies and individuals, US officials said Friday.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the government had decided to grant the eight exemptions from the oil sanctions, which will be reimposed on Monday, as these countries have decided to continue to reduce their oil purchases from oil companies. l & # 39; Iran. Six countries agreed to "drastically reduce" oil purchase levels, he said, and two said they would soon end their Iranian oil imports.
"Some of them will take a few months to get to zero," he told reporters during a conference call on the reimposition of sanctions. "We'll give them a little more time to relax. Weeks. "
The United States is trying to impose a global ban on Iranian oil by repealing sanctions suspended under the 2015 nuclear deal that the United States canceled in May. US authorities have pledged to vigorously block efforts to circumvent the ban by attacking offenders with secondary punishments.
Pompeo has not identified the countries and jurisdictions that will obtain exemptions, except to say that the European Union is not in fact part of it. South Korea, Japan and India, however, should benefit from a stay. All of them are among Iran's biggest oil consumers, and they said immediately stopping their purchases would drive up oil prices around the world.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the United States was ready to sanction Swift, a financial messaging system used by banks for international transactions, while allowing Iran to pay for it. Use for purposes other than humanitarian transactions. Under sanctions, Iran will still be able to buy goods such as food, agricultural products, medicines and medical devices.
"But people have to be very careful, they are real humanitarian transactions," Mnuchin said.
After President Trump withdrew in May from the deal he had denounced during the election campaign, the United States gave 180 days to countries and private companies around the world to stop fighting. import Iranian oil or face American sanctions.
Since the Trump government came to power, it has imposed sanctions on 168 Iranian individuals, companies and groups 19 times. Monday, added Mnuchin, he will add 700 names. Most of them are being re – registered, although 300 of them are new to the list, he said.
Although only a few countries support the withdrawal of the United States, unilateral sanctions are very effective, as many oil and financial transactions are made at least partially with US dollars.
This series of sanctions targets Iranian oil, which provides the government with 80% of its revenues. This also has implications for transport, insurance and financial transactions.
In August, the United States resumed the sanctions banning transactions using US dollars, Iranian automobiles and the purchase of commercial airlines.
The administration said it was not seeking a coup against the Islamic government but wanted to pressure Tehran to renegotiate the nuclear deal and change its policy, including supporting militias elsewhere in the region. by developing ballistic missiles. But Pompeo has presented a dozen requests, most of them probably can not be satisfied by Tehran and considered by critics as a request for capitulation from Iran.
[A foiled assassination plot in Denmark may have just cost Iran a partner against Trump]
Pompeo said Friday that the United States was seeking to change Iran's behavior towards its own people.
"We are working so that the Iranian people have the opportunity to have the government they want," he said, "a government that does not take its money and spend it on activities. perverse all over the world ".
The resumption of hostility pushed the Iranian economy to the brink of collapse, as its currency lost about 70% of its value. Iran's oil imports fell by about one million barrels a day, when they reached 2.5 million barrels a day. China has stepped up purchases in recent months, keeping them apparently in storage.
Iran should resort to subterfuge to maintain its economy. Some of its tankers have already disabled electronic identity tags that keep track of the orientation of tankers. Europeans are putting in place a special system that will essentially allow trade to continue with Iran through barter, though it has been difficult to convince a country to accept hosting this exchange and risk US sanctions.
Much of the impact of the new sanction has already been taken into account. Almost all multinationals doing business in the United States have already stopped doing business in Iran in order not to break the sanctions.
Mr Mnuchin said he expects that the European attempt to develop an alternative system allowing the continuation of trade with Iran fails. He and Pompeo said the United States would defeat any effort to circumvent sanctions.
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