Last week, the United States government said it would not extend its earlier exemption from sanctions to some countries importing oil from Iran. The Trump administration hopes to thus force Iran to negotiate a new deal, on the latter’s nuclear and allied activity, and alleged bad behaviour across the region.
Last year, the US had re-imposed sanctions on Iran’s energy, ship building, shipping and banking sectors. However, waivers were granted to eight main buyers of Iranian crude — India, China, Greece, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Turkey and Taiwan. The stated aim was to give the latter time to find alternative sources
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