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TEHRAN, Apr 22 - In effort to increase economic pressure on Iran, US announces it's ending waivers for countries importing Iran oil.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -The Trump administration announced on Monday that the United States will not be renewing waivers for several countries that were previously exempt from US sanctions on Iranian oil imports.
"President Donald J Trump has decided not to reissue Significant Reduction Exceptions (SREs) when they expire in early May," the White House said in a statement ahead of a press conference by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at 8:45am (12:45GMT). "This decision is intended to bring Iran's oil exports to zero, denying the regime its principal source of revenuem," it added.
Pompeo is expected to tell five countries, including US allies Japan, South Korea and Turkey, that they will no longer be exempt from US sanctions if they continue importing oil from Iran after May 2 when their waivers are set to expire. The other countries include China and India.
It was not immediately clear if any of the five would be given additional time to wind down their purchases or if they would be subject to US sanctions on May 3 if they do not immediately halt imports of Iranian oil.
The US, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates "have agreed to take timely action to assure that global demand is met as all Iranian oil is removed from the market," the White House said.
The decision to not extend the waivers, which was first reported by The Washington Post, was finalised on Friday by Trump, according to officials speaking to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. They said it is intended to further ramp up pressure on Iran by strangling the revenue it gets from oil exports.
The administration granted eight oil sanctions waivers when it re-imposed sanctions on Iran after Trump pulled the US out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal. They were granted in part to give those countries more time to find alternate energy sources but also to prevent a shock to global oil markets from the sudden removal of Iranian crude.
Since November, three of the eight - Italy, Greece and Taiwan - have stopped importing oil from Iran. The other five, however, have not, and have lobbied for their waivers to be extended.
Source:aljazeera
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