US Ends Exemptions for Iranian Oil Sanctions
The Trump administration will no longer grant exemptions for Iranian oil sanctions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters April 22, a move aimed at sharply reducing Iran’s oil exports and tightening pressure on the country to comply with U.S. demands. The current set of exemption waivers expire in early May, the White House said in a statement.
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After releasing a statement on the exemptions, Pompeo said during the press conference that the U.S. will “continue to accelerate” sanctions until Iran “stops committing terrorism” and ends its testing of missiles and nuclear weapons. “We are going to zero” exemptions, Pompeo said. “How long we remain there depends solely on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s senior leaders.”
Pompeo added that the U.S. has been in “constant discussion with allies and partners to help them transition away from Iranian crude to other alternatives,” and has worked with both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates “to make sure the market has sufficient volume to minimize the impact on pricing.” Pompeo said both are working with Iran’s oil customers to make the transition “less disruptive.”
The announcement came about a week after the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control announced additional sanctions on Iran, placing the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List. “The Trump Administration and our allies are determined to sustain and expand the maximum economic pressure campaign against Iran to end the regime’s destabilizing activity threatening the United States, our partners and allies, and security in the Middle East,” the White House said April 22.