All countries that were given waivers from the United States to continue buying Iranian crude are nevertheless complying with American sanctions, Tehran said and added that it was hopeful to find new buyers soon. Washington withdrew from the nuclear deal with Tehran last year and imposed punitive measures against Iran’s oil and banking industries.
“China, India, Japan, South Korea and other countries that were granted waivers from America to import Iranian oil are not willing to buy even one barrel more from Iran,” Amir Hossein Zamaninia, Iran’s deputy oil minister for trade and international affairs, commented. However, he also added that “despite US pressures on Iranian oil market, the number of potential buyers of Iranian oil has significantly increased due to a competitive market, greed and pursuit of more profit.”
Iran has also urged European countries to oppose the US sanctions by creating a mechanism that would facilitate payments for Iranian crude sales. The financial mechanism is known as ‘Special Purpose Vehicle for Trade’ (SPV) and it would be “helpful but could not resolve the problems since US influence will affect any European action”, Mr. Zamaninia said.
The US wants to bring Iranian oil exports to zero in order to put pressure on Iran’s missile and nuclear programs and counter its increasing military and political influence in the Middle East. “More than 20 importing nations have zeroed out their imports of crude oil already, taking more than 1 million barrels of crude per day off the market,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters in a briefing. “The regime to date since May has lost over $2.5 billion in oil revenue.”
