US weighing extension of Iran oil waiver after China's defiance
Tehran (KNA) - The US State Department is seriously considering using an Obama-era loophole to allow China to import oil from Iran, violating the Trump administration’s earlier pledge to bring Iranian oil exports down to zero, a report said.
Only last week, a senior State Department official handling Iran said the US would "sanction any imports of Iranian crude oil."
But according to three US officials, the department's Iran envoy, Brian Hook, and his team of negotiators have discussed granting China a waiver to a 2012 law intended to kneecap the Iranian oil industry.
The alternative is allowing China, which recently welcomed a shipment of approximately a million barrels of Iranian oil, openly to defy US sanctions, Politico reported on Wednesday.
The Trump team has kept the details of its deliberations closely held as news reports of the Chinese oil imports have proliferated in recent days - and hawks on Capitol Hill have begun to ask questions. It is the latest in a series of dust-ups between the administration and Congress on an Iran policy that has often appeared inconsistent, careening between threats of military action and offers to talk with Iranian leaders.
The 2012 Iran Freedom and Counterproliferation Act targeted the Iranian shipping, shipbuilding and energy sectors, requiring states or companies that wish to import Iranian oil and conduct business with the US to obtain waivers from the US government. A separate law targeted purchases, rather than imports of that oil.
Source: PressTV