Iran Sanctions Waiver | Latest Burning Issues

Table of Contents

BASICS

Two sets of sanctions – First

Iran’s purchase of U.S. currency
Iran’s trade in gold and other precious metals and
The sale to Iran of auto parts, commercial passenger aircraft, and related parts and services.

THE SECOND SET OF SANCTIONS

Start from 5th November
Restricts sales of oil and petrochemical products from Iran.
Thus any country, or company, trading with Iran without US consent after sanctions kick off risks getting cut off from the American financial system.

INDIA – IRAN

India is a major importer of Iranian oil — of the 220.4 million metric tonnes of crude imported by India in 2017-18, more than 9% was from Iran India had imported about 22 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran in 2017-18 and planned to raise that to about 30 million tonnes in 2018-19.

NOTES

The Trump administration will allow eight countries to import limited amounts of Iranian oil even after US sanctions

THE 8 COUNTRIES

China, India, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, the United Arab Emirates and Japan have been top importers of Iran’s oil, while Taiwan occasionally buys cargoes of Iranian crude but is not a major buyer. Turkey has been told it will temporarily be allowed to keep buying Iranian oil, its energy minister told reporters, as has Iraq, as long as it does not pay Iran in U.S. dollars

U.S. SANCTIONS WAIVER ON INDIA

MAJOR BENEFIT

A waiver will come as a big relief to Indian Oil and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), the two largest Iranian oil consumers. The two firms together have placed an order for 1.25mt of crude from Iran in November.

SWIFT FINANCIAL MESSAGING SERVICE U.S.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also said Washington had told the Brussels-based SWIFT financial messaging service it was expected to disconnect all Iranian financial institutions that the United States plans to blacklist

CONDITIONS

But, as a condition of waiver, Indian oil firms will reduce their imports significantly. the U.S. has said that it is only issuing temporary waivers, and the waivers are strictly linked to the condition that countries receiving them keep cutting down their purchases from Iran