Alwaght- A day a day before US sanctions on Iran’s energy and shipping were due to snap back following Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement, 8 major buyers of Iran oil were granted waivers to continue trade with Tehran.
The retreat comes while over the past few months, the US President and his administration officials have been trumpeting maximum pressures against Iran in early November.
Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal on May 8 and vowed to re-impose the unilateral embargo on Tehran within 90 to 180 days. Since then, Trump and his diplomas have been lobbying to get supporters for their anti-Iranian pressure campaign. But in practice almost no country backed their intention. On the contrary, the world voiced opposition to the US unilateralism. This situation pushed the Americans to review their choices and move back from their promises of pressure. The shift exhibited itself in the White House show of flexibility in issuing waivers to the Iran crude customers.
Frustrated with the world rejection to side with Washington in hostility against Iran, the US National Security Advisor John Bolton said that his country seeks heavy pressures against the Islamic Republic but it does not want its allies and friends who buy oil from Iran to be harmed with sanctions.
“We want to achieve maximum pressure but we don’t want to harm friends and allies either,” Bolton told audience during a talk at Washington-based Alexander Hamilton Society.
These remarks apparently indicate that Washington has backed down on its earlier stances and come out with the conclusion that it cannot succeed in sanctioning Iran. So, it chose to show flexibly in chasing the goal of maximum pressures on Iran. This is read by the analysts as a kind of defeat for Trump’s much-trumpeted November 4 ban.
Trump seeks Iran oil cut
While the world and American media have been talking about the waivers to 8 customers, the US president in a statement on Wednesday said that "there is a sufficient supply of petroleum and petroleum products from countries other than Iran to permit a significant reduction in the volume of petroleum and petroleum products purchased from Iran by or through foreign financial institutions."
The statement, or formally document, addressing the Departments of State, Treasury, and Energy, said that the comments come after a precise assessment of the world economy, oil supply rise, and surplus in energy production capacity, and the US strategic energy reserves.
8 countries get oil waivers
Bloomberg news on Friday reported that the US agreed to allow 8 countries to buy oil from Iran beyond the November 4 sanctions which target oil, banking, and other sectors. According to the American broadcaster, India, Japan, China, and South Korea were among those given exceptions. Bloomberg said that India, Japan, and South Korea, the US close allies with great dependence on Iran oil, have been granted the waivers. But the full list is not published yet.
On the other side, the Washington Free Beacon website has reported that the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been persuaded that Iran should not be cut from SWIFT, a global financial transfer system.
“Senior State Department officials working on the Iran issue are said to have convinced Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to permit Iran to remain connected to the international banking system,” the website reported.
WFB added that “Trump administration is poised to offer a series of major concessions to Iran that will let it escape key economic sanctions.” The website was citing US officials and administration insiders.
Turkey and Russia vow to help Iran counter sanctions
Russia and Turkey said that they will take Iran side against the upcoming ban. This can be regarded as a fresh loss to Washington with regard to the volume and value of the trade between Iran and the two.
The Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday his country will help Iran counter fresh US sanctions due to come into effect this week, saying Moscow will continue trading Tehran’s crude in defiance of Washington.
"We believe we should look for mechanisms that would allow us to continue developing cooperation with our partners, with Iran," Novak told the Financial Times.
The Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez told the country’s parliament that "we have received information that Turkey is among the countries that will be given an exemption but we do not have the details," Anadolu news agency cited him as saying.
Russia and Europe opposed to new round of sanctions
Russia, beside its energy minister remarks, issued a statement, condemning the new round of anti-Tehran sanctions.
On Saturday, Russia said, the re-imposition of all US sanctions on Iran is dealing another powerful blow to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that a new round of anti-Iran sanctions announced by Washington is aimed at undermining the consistent efforts by the parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to preserve that deal.
"A new round of anti-Iran sanctions announced by Washington is aimed at undermining the consistent efforts by the parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to preserve that deal," Russian Tass news agency cited the ministry’s statement.
"Washington’s policy aimed at scrapping international legal nuclear nonproliferation and arms control tools triggers profound disappointment and growing concern. The US is dealing another mighty blow to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, arguing hypocritically that it is essential to strengthen it, but, in actual fact, gearing up for its collapse,” the statement continued.
France, Germany, and Britain, on the other side, said they deeply regretted the further re-imposition of sanctions by the US in a joint statement. The statement termed the nuclear pact as “a key element of the global nuclear non-proliferation architecture and of multilateral diplomacy, endorsed unanimously by the UN Security Council through Resolution 2231"
These positions by various sides mark the defeat of the Trump policy to make Iran bow to the demands through oil sanctions. These positions were key in forcing White House shift and grant exemptions to the major customers of Iran energy.
