China not happy with U.S. sanctions of Iranian oil
China has strongly opposed the announcement by United States (U.S.) President – Donald Trump’s Administration that countries will no longer be exempted from U.S. sanctions if they continue to import oil from Iran, once their waivers end on May 2, 2019.
Iran is the South Asian nation’s 3rd largest supplier of crude oil, after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey are the biggest importer of Iranian oil.
Why such move?
The U.S. wants to bring down Iran’s oil exports to zero, severely impacting its economy. The U.S. granted oil sanctions waivers when it re-imposed sanctions on Iran after Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal. Under the earlier accord, Iran had agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors in return for sanctions relief.
The U.S. wants Iran to negotiate a new deal that would cover not only its nuclear activities, but also its ballistic missile programme.
Clear instructions from U.S.
The U.S. Secretary of State – Mike Pompeo said, “We’re going to zero. We’re going to zero across the board. There are no (oil) waivers that extend beyond that period, full stop. We’ve made clear if you don’t abide by this there will be sanctions.”
He further added, “The goal is to deprive the outlaw regime of the funds that it has used to destabilise the Middle East for decades and incentivise Iran to behave like a normal country.”
Iran condemns the move
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has said, “The waivers have no value but because of the practical negative effects of the sanctions, the Foreign Ministry has been in touch with foreign partners, including European, international and neighbours and will… act accordingly.”
Reactions from other countries
Reacting to the decision, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson – Geng Shuang said, “China opposes the unilateral sanctions and so-called ‘long-arm jurisdictions’ imposed by the US. Our cooperation with Iran is open, transparent, lawful and legitimate, thus it should be respected.”
The Foreign Minister of Turkey – Mevlut Cavusoglu said, “Turkey rejects unilateral sanctions and impositions on how to conduct relations with neighbors. We will look for alternatives in terms of transactions and other things. We don’t want to break or violate the sanctions but at the same time we don’t want to be deprived of our right to buy oil and gas from Iran.”
What next?
The White House has also mentioned that U.S., Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) have agreed to take timely action to assure that global demand is met as all Iranian oil is removed from the market.
For the records, surrendering to U.S. pressure, Italy, Greece and Taiwan have stopped importing oil from Iran since November 2018.
