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Bloomberg
President Donald Trump may have ordered the re-imposition of sanctions on Iran, but one of Asia’s biggest oil importers — and a strategic partner of the US — plans on ignoring them.
India, a long-time buyer of oil from both Iran and Venezuela, only complies with UN-mandated sanctions and not those imposed by one country on another, said foreign minister Sushma Swaraj.
“India will comply with UN sanctions and not any country-specific sanctions,†Swaraj said at an annual briefing. Swaraj later met Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, where they discussed Trump’s plan to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Swaraj said “all parties to the agreement should engage constructively for peaceful resolution of the issues,†according to a foreign ministry statement.
Indian refiners had slashed purchases of Iranian crude to about half their previous levels when the United Nations, European Union and US imposed a broad array of economic sanctions against Tehran.