New Delhi:
US President Donald Trump on Sunday said that his country has placed the strongest-ever sanctions on Iran. This statement comes a few hours before the sanctions on the West Asian nation comes into effect. Earlier on Friday, tweeted a "Game of Thrones" image of himself with the words "sanctions are coming".
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump was quoted by CNN saying, "The Iran sanctions are very strong. We'll see what happens with Iran (after that). But, they are not doing very well. It's a big difference since I have been in office."
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He added, "When I came to office, if you go a day before, it looked like Iran would take over the Middle East. And now nobody's talking about that. Iran sanctions will go into effect and they are strongest sanctions that our country has ever issued."
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2018
On Friday, the Donald Trump administration announced the return of all US sanctions on Iran that were lifted by former president Barack Obama under the 2015 nuclear deal. The United States has vowed to end all sales of Iranian oil, the country's crucial export, as well as international banking transactions.
However, the US decided to exempt eight countries, including India, from new Iran oil sanctions, had said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He said the exemptions would be temporary.
The US is to issue temporary exemption to eight "jurisdictions" from Iranian sanctions recognising their significant reduction in imports of oil from Iran. The names of the jurisdictions would be released on Monday, Pompeo said.
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India, which is the second biggest purchaser of Iranian oil after China, is willing to restrict its monthly purchase to 1.25 million tonnes or 15 million tonnes in a year (300,000 barrels per day), down from 22.6 million tonnes (452,000 barrels per day) bought in 2017-18 financial year, sources in New Delhi said.
In May, US President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 landmark nuclear 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 agreed to stop its nuclear programme in exchange of relief from economic sanctions.
(With agency inputs)
