China Left Out as U.S. Waives Iranian Imports to Seven Countries

The Obama Administration has provided exemptions to purchase Iranian crude oil to India, South Korea, Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey, Taiwan and Sri Lanka without incurring sanctions. But, China, its largest importer, was not grant an exemption.

U.S. sanctions against Iran have crippled imports to the seven countries as they were not able to transport crude on their flag lines or chartered oil tankers. Meanwhile, the Iranian tanker fleet is too small to meet the demand and the countries simple cut imports whether they wanted to or not.    

China has continued its opposition to U.S. unilateral sanctions and Beijing claims it has had to reduce imports from Iran by over 22% due to the lack of tonnage to transport. While the Obama Administration said the sanctions are working against Iran, Iranian exports to South Korean were down 40% and India was down about 20%. But, China did vote for U.N. sanctions against Iran and played a major role in nuclear talks with the rouge nation.