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The United States on Wednesday ruled out granting any further exemption from sanctions for the purchase of Russian or Iranian oil. US Treasury Scott Bessent announced at a press conference at the White House here. "We will not be renewing the general license on Russian oil, and we will not be renewing the general license on Iranian oil. That was oil that was on the water prior to March 11, so all that has been used," Bessent told reporters here. On March 5, the US issued a 30-day sanctions waiver to India, permitting it to buy Russian oil despite sanctions imposed over the Ukraine war. A few days later, the US extended the sanctions waiver to a few other nations. The waiver from sanctions expired on April 11.
The commander of Iran's joint military command on Wednesday threatened to halt trade in the Gulf region if the US does not lift its blockade on Iranian ports. No vessels have made it past US naval forces during the first 48 hours of the blockade, according to the US Central Command. Even so, US President Donald Trump said the war in Iran was "very close to over" in an interview that aired Wednesday. Trump also claimed that China has agreed not to provide weapons to Iran as reports circulate that Beijing has considered transferring arms. China's Foreign Ministry has repeatedly denied in recent days that the country is providing any form of military support to Iran. Separately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned on Wednesday that the US is preparing to ramp up economic pain on Iran by levying secondary sanctions on financial institutions that do business with the Middle Eastern nation. Bessent called the measure the "financial equivalent" of the bombing campaign. Meanwhile, ...
Iran fired upon commercial ships on Wednesday and targeted Dubai International Airport, escalating a campaign of bottling up the oil-rich Persian Gulf as global energy concerns mounted and American and Israeli airstrikes pounded the Islamic Republic. Iran's response to the surprise Israeli and US bombardment that started 12 days ago has upended trade routes, choked supplies of fuel and fertiliser coming out of the Gulf and threatened air traffic through one of the world's most-travelled regions. Both sides have dug in, hoping to outlast the other. Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was wounded at the start of the war - on the day when his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli airstrike, an Israeli intelligence assessment has found. An Israeli intelligence official and a reservist with knowledge of the assessment spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter with the media. They gave no ..