State Department to declare all nations importing Iranian oil will be liable to US sanctions
The State Department is set to declare all nations that keep on bringing in Iranian oil will be liable to US sanctions, The Washington Post provided details regarding Sunday.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will declare Monday morning that as of May 2, nations importing Iranian crude or condensate will never again be allowed sanctions waivers by the State Department, two department authorities told the newspaper’s journalist Josh Rogin, who is additionally a CNN political examiner.
“The goal of the policy is to drive up the costs of Iran’s malign behavior and more strongly address the broad range of threats to peace and security their regime presents,” a State Department official told the Post.
The declaration will come about one year after President Donald Trump reported the US was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal.
On April 2, Brian Hook, senior policy adviser to Pompeo, said in a State Department briefing that the US is “on the fast track to zeroing out all purchases of Iranian crude.” Hook said three of the eight importers who had been allowed waivers on the Iran oil sanctions are “now at zero.” He said a total of 23 importers were at zero.
Pompeo is set to report offsets through commitments from different providers like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two State Department authorities told the Post. Trump talked on Thursday with the UAE’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan about the issue, the Post reports.
“The policy of zero Iranian imports originated with Secretary Pompeo,” a senior State Department official told the Post. “He has executed this policy in tight coordination with the president every step of the way. Because the conditions to not grant any more (significant reduction exceptions, or waivers) have now been met, we can now announce zero imports.”