US says more countries stopped buying Iran oil

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - The U.S. said that more countries stopped buying oil from sanctions-hit Iran, Japanese media reported on Wednesday.

According to the Kyodo news agency, a U.S. Department of State official said in Washington on Tuesday evening that three of eight countries which were exempted by the U.S. to import oil from Iran have now “completely stopped imports from the country”.

China, India, South Korea, Italy, Greece, Taiwan, Turkey and Japan were the eight countries which U.S. allowed to buy oil from Iran after imposing severe sanctions on Tehran last November for pursuing nuclear program. The waivers will expire on May 2.

The U.S. official, however, did not identify the countries.

Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, said that besides the three countries, “the number of parties that once were purchasers of Iranian oil but have cut imports to zero has totaled 23.”

“Because of our efforts, the regime now has less money to spend on its support of terrorism, missile proliferation, and on its long list of proxies,” Hook said at a press briefing in Washington.

“With oil prices actually lower than they were when we announced our sanctions, and global oil and global production stable, we are on the fast track to zeroing out all purchases of Iranian crude,” he said.

Kyodo said that Hook declined to say whether the United States will extend the waivers on import of oil from Iran to these eight countries. “There will be an announcement on that in due course,” he said.