- According to a report,United States is expected to announce that all buyers of Iranian oil will have to end their imports shortly or face sanctions.This would increase the crude oil prices by about 3%
- In November 2018,US had re-imposed sanctions on exports of Iranian oil after US had unilaterally pulled out of a 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers.
- However,the US had granted exemptions to (a)China (b)India (c)Italy (d)Greece (e)Japan (f)South Korea (g)Taiwan and (h)Turkey from sanctions on Iran.The exemptions were meant to last six months and were due to expire in March,2019. However,US had not ended the waiver provided to these eight countries.
- These countries were granted sanctions to give them 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 2018,three of the eight which are Italy, Greece and Taiwan have stopped importing oil from Iran.However,the other five have not stopped and have lobbied for their waivers to be extended.
- The US has a campaign of maximum economic pressure on Iran and through sanctions,it eventually aims to halt Iranian oil exports and thereby choke its main source of revenue.
