The US said that companies that buy crude oil from Iran after November 4, 2018 will face sanctions including those from China and India.
Companies from US partner countries, around the world, must completely end such imports if they want to avoid sanctions, said a senior US State Department official today, according to media reports.
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These US decisions come in the wake of the US reinstating financial sanctions on Iran. This is a consequence of Washington pulling out of the nuclear deal with Iran in May. Some US sanctions take effect from August 6, others, including those affecting the oil sector, will be effective from November.
“…On China, India – yes, certainly. Their companies – their companies will be subject to the same sanctions that everybody else’s are if they engage in those sectors of the economy that are sanctionable, where there were sanctions imposed prior to 2015. And yes, we will certainly be requesting that their oil imports go to zero, without question,” said the US official, according to media reports .
An interagency team of state and treasury department officials will be visiting India, China and other countries in the coming weeks, he said.
Iran is India’s third-largest oil supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It supplied 18.4 million tonnes of crude oil during April 2017 and January 2018 (first 10 months of 2017-18 fiscal).
India’s External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj has said on many occasions that India follows UN sanctions and not country specific sanctions. In May, Indian government sources told news agency PTI that its oil imports from the Islamic Republic won’t be affected as long as European countries don’t follow suit.
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