The US Treasury Department announced on November 5 the re-imposition of sanctions against Iran, targeting the financial, shipping, aviation and crude oil sectors. But immediately after, the country granted a 180-day waiver to eight countries, including China, Japan, South Korea and India, to import Iranian crude, reported Shanghai-based news portal
The Paper.
The reason, National Security Advisor John Bolton said, is that the US does not want to hurt its allies or friends that depend on Iranian oil, reported the portal. In an opinion piece it ran, Lan Shunzheng, a fellow of the private think tank The Charhar Institute, argued that the US is not granting the waivers out of goodwill – and the reasons are twofold.
The country will be in a dilemma if it did not grant them, Lan said. Take India. Although a close US ally, the South Asian country, relying heavily on Iranian oil, will not bend its own national interests to the US, as evidenced by its purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system, despite US opposition. The US's Indo-Pacific Strategy needs Indian support. Besides, it also needs Turkey’s support in the Saudi Arabia and Syrian issues.
The US is taking a step-by-step approach, the scholar said, as it realizes it is unlikely to shut down Iran’s foreign trade at one stroke. Although some countries have waivers, more are negatively affected, likely leading some less-staunch supporters of the Iran nuclear deal to back off. The Danish government accused 30 Iranian intelligence personnel on October 30 of attempting to murder an Iranian opposition leader in Denmark, and Danish diplomats’ call for actions on Tehran was later heeded by countries like Britain and France, Lan said, citing a report from The Wall Street Journal.
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