Sanctions on Iran: US, Indian officials to meet

A team of senior US government officials may soon visit New Delhi to hold a discussion on granting India exemption from sanctions, which president Donald Trump's administration is set to impose on the export of crude oil from Iran.

In view of the looming US sanctions against Iran, India has not yet decided to cut oil imports from the West Asian country.

New Delhi is rather cautiously optimistic and expecting an early move by Washington to discuss the issue of granting a waiver for India from the sanctions.

A meeting between the senior officials of the US State and Treasury departments and their Indian counterparts is expected to take place in New Delhi this month.

The officials are likely to decide on the quantum of crude oil India will be able to import from Iran without being subjected to US sanctions.

India is the second largest buyer of crude oil from Iran. Iran, on the other hand, is the third largest supplier of oil for India.

New Delhi already made it clear that India's decision on future imports of crude oil from Iran will be guided by its own national interest and not by the diktat of any third country.

India purportedly imported over 7,00,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Iran in May with the average for the first five months of the current year being over 5,00,000 barrels a day.

'2+2 dialogue'

India and the United States are also in touch to reschedule the “2+2 dialogue”, which External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Niramala Sitharaman will hold with American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James N Mattis.

It was earlier scheduled to be held in Washington on July 6, but was postponed as Pompeo had to visit Pyongyang this week to follow up on Trump's meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore last month.

On Wednesday, sources in New Delhi said that the "2+2 dialogue" would possibly be held within the next couple of months.

November 4 deadline

Washington recently set November 4 as the deadline for the countries like India, China and others to stop importing crude oil from Iran.

The US stated that it would reimpose sanctions targeting the energy sector of Iran on November 4 and the nations, which would continue to import oil from the Islamic Republic beyond that date, would be subjected to “secondary sanctions”.

During her recent visit to New Delhi, Nikki Haley, the US permanent representative to the United Nations, too called upon India to lessen its energy dependence on Iran.

However, what made New Delhi optimistic about securing a waiver from Washington are the remarks made by US State Department's Director for Policy and Planning, Brian Hook, on Monday.

Hook said that the US was ready to work “on case-to-case basis” with the countries cutting down oil import from Iran. He indicated that if India and other countries start bringing down oil import from Iran, they would be exempted from “secondary sanctions” even after re-imposition of the US sanctions on Islamic Republic.

Washington started the process of reimposing sanctions on Iran after Trump announced in May his decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal Tehran inked with the US, four other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Germany and European Union.

Swaraj had hosted Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in New Delhi on May 28. She told Zarif that India only adhered to the sanctions imposed by the United Nations, and not the one imposed unilaterally by a nation or a group of a few nations.