President Donald Trump said on Wednesday in a presidential memorandum that he had determined there was sufficient supply of petroleum and petroleum products for countries to “significantly” reduce their purchase of crude oil from Iran, which is going face US sanctions from November 5.
In May, Trump had pulled out of the 2015 landmark nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) terming it as “disastrous”. Under the Obama-era deal, involving five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany, Iran had agreed to stop its nuclear programme in exchange of relief from economic sanctions.
Moments after coming out the deal Trump had signed fresh set of sanctions against Iran and warned countries against any cooperation with Tehran on its controversial nuclear weapons programme.
In his presidential determination, Trump said “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.”
Trump’s presidential determination, not an executive order but a kind of directive issued by the White House to the members of his adminstration on some policy matters, comes less than 100 hours before the deadline set by him for countries like India to bring its purchase of oil to zero from Iran by November 4.
India has expressed its difficulties in doing so given the galloping energy needs of its 1.3 billion people. More than 80 per cent of India’s energy needs are imported. But at the same time, India has taken steps to reduce its oil purchase from Iran, which has already declined substantially.
Recently, senior US officials were in India for talks in this regard. However, US officials are tightlipped on the issue.
The White House also did not immediately responded to question if India’s oil purchase reductions from Iran would be considered significant. Trump said he will continue to monitor the situation.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said, on the Laura Ingraham Show, that on November 5, the US will put back in place sanctions that will be very severe on the leadership of Iran. He hoped that this will convince them to change their ways.
Pompeo, on the another show, said that Iran was the world’s largest state sponsor of terror. “They were squandering the people’s money, the Iranian people’s money, on these silly malign activities. And our effort is to get them to change that behaviour”.
State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Paladino told reporters that on November 5, at 12:01, sanctions that were lifted under the Iran nuclear deal will come back into full effect.
