The United States of America today announced that India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan have all significantly reduced their volume of crude oil purchases from Iran.
In her remarks in DC, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton notes that the seven countries join the 11 countries for which she made this determination in March.
As a result, Ms. Clinton says she will report to the Congress that sanctions pursuant to Section 1245(d)(1) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 will not apply to their financial institutions for a potentially renewable period of 180 days.
The US government has implemented these sanctions to support its efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and to encourage Iran to comply with its international obligations.
“Today’s announcement underscores the success of our sanctions implementation.” – Ms. Clinton
She stresses that by reducing Iran’s oil sales, the US government is sending a decisive message to Iran’s leaders: until they take concrete actions to satisfy the concerns of the international community, they will continue to face increasing isolation and pressure.
The United States remains committed to a dual-track policy that offers Iran the chance to engage seriously with the international community to resolve its concerns over its nuclear program through negotiations with the P5+1, Ms. Clinton highlighted
She notes Iran has the ability to address these concerns by taking concrete steps during the next round of talks in Moscow. Ms. Clinton urges Iran’s leaders to do so.
On February this year, Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland announced that the United States Government took three separate sanctions actions against Iran’s primary intelligence agency, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
MOIS was designated for its involvement in the commission of serious human rights abuses against the Iranian people, as well as its support to terrorist groups, including al-Qa’ida, Hizballah and Hamas.
The United States has also imposed visa and financial sanctions on the MOIS for its commission of serious human rights abuses in its own country.
On June 2011, the United States of America have imposed several sanctions on Iran. The United States imposed sanctions on Tidewater Middle East Company, an operator of Iranian ports owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that has links to Iranian proliferation activities.
The United States has also imposed sanctions against Iran Air, which was designated for providing material support and services to the IRGC and Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), and also has facilitated proliferation-related activities.
The European Union as well has imposed sanctions against Iran. The EU bans imports of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products, freeze the assets of the Iranian central bank, and take additional action against Iran’s energy, financial, and transport sectors.
The measures was agreed by the EU Foreign Affairs Council which are another strong step in the international effort to dramatically increase the pressure on Iran.
The stronger EU sanctions against Iran followed after President Obama’s New Year’s Eve signing of a bill that bars U.S. dealings with Iran’s Central Bank.
EU ministers, meeting in Brussels on December 1, adopted additional sanctions, but postponed any action regarding Iran’s Central Bank and oil imports. Great Britain froze its dealings with Iran’s Central Bank on November 21.
The new U.S. sanctions include rules barring transactions with the Central Bank of Iran and with foreign entities engaging in such transactions.
