By Shahriar Kia
Donald Trump said on Wednesday that there is sufficient global supply of oil to allow all countries to significantly reduce their imports of Iranian crude after sanctions come into place on November 5.
He said: “There is a sufficient supply of petroleum and petroleum products from countries other than Iran to permit a significant reduction in the volume of petroleum and petroleum products purchased from Iran by or through foreign financial institutions.”
These sanctions are the result of Donald Trump pulling out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal, in May and promising to remove sanctions relief from Iran.
Waivers
Some countries, like India, are fighting for sanctions waivers, claiming that they cannot cope with completely losing access to Iranian oil, while South Korea asked for “maximum flexibility” and other countries, like China have refused to comply with the sanctions.
However, the US Treasury has already made clear that waivers will only be available to countries that reduce their imports of Iranian oil by over 20% and the decision will be made on a case-by-case basis.
India did reduce its Iranian oil imports by 16% under the last round of sanctions, so there should be no reason that it cannot reach 20% this time. In fact, their purchases of Iranian crude already fell during the period of July and August, so it just needs a bigger push.
US national security adviser John Bolton said Wednesday that the sanctions are not designed to harm US allies, but rather just to put pressure on the mullahs in Iran. He explained that the administration knows that some countries, especially those that are geographically close to Iran, may find it hard to get to zero immediately, but that doesn’t mean the US should push for that as a goal.
He said: We want to achieve maximum pressure but we don’t want to harm friends and allies either.”
Goal
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that Iran is the world’s largest state sponsor of terror and these sanctions are designed to change the Regime’s malign behaviour
While State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Paladino said: “These [Iran-backed terror] groups foment global instability, they use these funds to support their nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and these funds are used to line corrupt Iranian leaders’ pockets rather than help the Iranian people, who are the longest-suffering victims.”