TEHRAN, June 24 - Following its policies against Iran, US has asked Tokyo to halt all crude purchases from Iran, insisting that its allies cease all trade with the country.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The request was made during a meeting between US and Japanese officials in Tokyo this week, RT reported.
No decision has been made yet, though, and talks will continue.
This means that Washington is taking a harder stance on Iran than it did in 2012. Six years ago, before the nuclear deal, the US demanded that its allies should reduce oil purchases from sanctioned Iran, rather than stop them completely.
Japan is Asia’s fourth-largest buyer of Iranian crude, which accounts for 5.3 percent of its oil consumption, or 172,000 barrels per day.
Refiners in Japan earlier said they could substitute Iranian oil with crude from other Middle Eastern countries, even though their plants are particularly compatible with crude from Iran.
Under the JCPOA, a deal reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.
US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement.
Trump also said he would reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.
Since the US president pulled Washington out of the historic nuclear deal, European countries have been scrambling to ensure that Iran gets enough economic benefits to persuade it to stay in the deal. The remaining parties have vowed to stay in the accord.
Source: RT
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