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U.S. to reimpose sanctions on Iran next week

Posted November. 05, 2018 07:45,   

Updated November. 05, 2018 07:45

한국어

The Trump administration is set to make a final decision on the eight countries to be exempted from newly imposed sanctions against Iran on Monday (local time).

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said during a teleconference Friday that eight jurisdictions will be granted temporary waivers and “the list will come out Monday.”

“This part of the campaign about which we’re speaking today is simple. It is aimed at depriving the regime of the revenues that it uses to spread death and destruction around the world,” said Pompeo. “We expect to issue some temporary allotments to eight jurisdictions, but only because they have demonstrated significant reductions in their crude oil and cooperation on many other fronts and have made important moves towards getting to zero crude oil importation. Two of the jurisdictions will completely end imports as part of their agreements. The other six will import at greatly reduced levels.”

Pompeo’s remarks including that the U.S. has “made it clear that they (waivers) are temporary” indicate that Washington intends to first let the eight countries take some time to secure alternative importers to minimize economic damage and then gradually bring them to completely end oil imports from Iran.

Washington’s latest sanctions ban the import and export of Iranian crude oil and petrochemical products, and are aimed at depriving Tehran of its main source of income, which accounts for 80 percent of the country’s tax revenue. Observers say that they are the strongest sanctions ever imposed by a U.S. administration against Iran.

The Iranian government has strongly resisted saying that “The United States, through raising unfounded claims, has imposed unilateral sanctions.”


Jeong-Hun Park sunshade@donga.com · Dong-Il Seo dong@donga.com