Creative Commons/Trevor MacInnis
US government granted exemptions to India along with 6 other countries including Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Taiwan from Iran Oil Sanctions.
The US government has already reduced the imports of oil from Iran. Granting waivers also has proved to be another successful step towards pressurizing Iran to come clear about its nuclear program.
The US sanctions aim at foreign banks or financial institutions that deal with Iran’s central bank. US sanctions block them from opening or maintaining correspondent operations or business in the United States. They would apply to foreign central banks only for transactions that involve the sale or purchase of petroleum or petroleum products and then only if the administration determined that there is enough non-Iranian oil available to make up the difference without disrupting oil markets.
The countries which have received the waivers from the US government will not be affected by the US laws and US economic sanctions of Oil imports from Iran. In other words, the banks and other financial institutions from the exempted countries including India and the others will see no penalties under US law for a renewable 180-day period.
In a bid to pressurize Iran, the US administration has dealt also with number of other countries such as Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland and Spain. The American Administration has persuaded and convinced the said countries to reduce the oil imports from Iran. Among major importers of Iranian oil such as aforementioned countries, now only China remains who stands without a US waiver. If until June 28, China, one of the biggest importers and consumers of Iranian oil, does not agree to reduce the consumption of Iranian oil; it will have to face the penalties unless it gets a national security waiver.
The experts of oil market now hint that the prices on oil might shoot higher due to reduced imports by several countries. During times not long ago, the oil prices had already increased as the amount of oil barrels exported by Iran had gone down.