US to exempt eight nations from Iran sanctions snapback
US sanctions on Iran's oil exports go into effect Nov. 5, though the United States has issued sanctions waivers for eight unidentified countries.
WASHINGTON — The United States will exempt eight nations from US secondary sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, the Donald Trump administration said today.
The sanctions, set to resume Nov. 5, are “aimed at depriving the regime of the revenues that it uses to spread death and destruction around the world,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a call with journalists today. “Our ultimate aim is to compel Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented outlaw activities and behave as a normal country.”
The resumed sanctions targeting Iran’s energy, banking, shipping and ship-building sectors had been lifted because of Iran’s compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Trump withdrew from in May.
Pompeo said the United States will be issuing temporary, six-month waivers for eight jurisdictions that have significantly reduced, though not eliminated, their imports of Iranian oil. He did not announce which countries those are, but indicated they did not include the 28-member European Union as a bloc. Both Turkey and Iraq have announced that they have been notified they will be exempted from the sanctions. It is widely expected that Japan, South Korea and India will also receive waivers.
