Trump grants India waiver from Iran oil sanctions, report says

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The US has granted India a waiver from sanctions imposed on Iran, according to a report.

Washington has agreed to allow Indian companies to continue importing oil from Iran until March, the Economic Times has reported.

The US will re-impose sanctions on Iran from 4 November, following Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this year.

However, India is the second biggest importer of oil from Iran, behind China, and when the US previously imposed sanctions on Iran, before the Iran deal was agreed in 2015, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, and Taiwan all won exemptions.

Ahead of the new set of restrictions, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has said Washington expects all oil purchases from Iran to “go to zero’’ but also said that the government will “consider waivers where appropriate.’’

Oil prices rose when the latest round of sanctions was announced, as concerns were raised that global oil supply would be depleted with Iran taken out of the market.

This week, analysts and economists said they expected oil to stay above $75 per barrel once the sanctions are re-imposed, but added that further gains will be curbed by slowing demand due to trade war fears.

Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, was trading at $74.51 per barrel on Thursday.

The Iran nuclear deal saw Tehran agree to curtail its nuclear weapons programme in return for the lifting of economic sanctions.

However, in August, Mr Trump said he would not re-ratify the “horrible, one-sided deal” which he said had “failed to achieve the fundamental objective of blocking all paths to an Iranian nuclear bomb, and it threw a lifeline of cash to a murderous dictatorship that has continued to spread bloodshed, violence, and chaos”.