We want all nations to stop buying Iran oil

  1. The US has not ended the sanctions waiver provided to eight countries.It has allowed them to continue purchasing Iranian crude oil as these countries showed significant reduction in oil purchase from the Iran after United States had reimposed sanctions.
  2. 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 therefore due to expire in March,2019.
  3. Iran Nuclear deal which is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was announced in 2015.The deal was signed between Iran and the P5+1 group (US,UK,France,Russia,China and Germany).It restricts Iran’s nuclear programme,in return for lifting most of the economic sanctions against it.
  4. The key Provisions of the Nuclear deal are (a)Limits on uranium enrichment (b)Limits on number of nuclear centrifuges (centrifuge is a device used to enrich uranium) (c)Restrictions on plutonium enrichment- Stopping Iran from operating at Arak nuclear site which was used to make plutonium (d)The deal increased the breakout time to 1 year.
  5. Breakout time is the time it would take Iran to produce enough bomb-grade material for a single nuclear weapon (e)Allowing International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for inspections.However,the deal does not cover Iran’s Ballistic Missile programme.
  6. USA had withdrawn from the deal in 2018 citing the following reasons:(a)The JCPOA failed to deal with the threat of Iran’s missile programme and (b)The deal does not include strong mechanisms for inspections and verification.