U.S. May Sanction India Over Level of Iran-Oil Imports

Kunal Biswas

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U.S. May Sanction India Over Level of Iran-Oil Imports

India has failed to reduce its purchases of Iranian oil, and if it doesn't do so, President Barack Obama may be forced to impose sanctions on one of Asia's most important nations, Obama administration officials said yesterday.A decision to levy penalties under a new U.S. law restricting payments for Iranian oil could come as early as June 28, according to several U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The U.S. law, which targets oil payments made through Iran's central bank, applies to any country that doesn't make a "significant" reduction in its Iranian crude oil purchases during the first half of this year. If India fails to cut Iranian imports sufficiently, Obama may be compelled to bar access to the U.S. banking system for any Indian bank processing oil payments through Iran's central bank, the U.S. officials said.


For their part, Japan and South Korea are seeking exemptions from the new U.S. sanctions. If both nations can demonstrate a significant reduction in their purchases by the end of June, their banks would escape penalties, according to two U.S. officials involved in the talks.Japan is seeking to reduce its crude purchases from Iran by at least 11 percent, according to a Japanese government official interviewed Feb. 21. The three largest Japanese buyers of Iranian crude are Showa Shell Sekiyu KK (5002), JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. and Cosmo Oil Co. (5007)The South Korean government has said it will make a decision on cutting Iranian crude imports by the end of June. South Korean officials denied reports saying they had already proposed cutting imports by 15 percent to 20 percent.The White House doesn't want to punish Japan, South Korea or India, critical U.S. partners in trade and security and important regional counterweights to the rise of China, U.S. officials said. Still, the president has limited leeway to grant exemptions under the law, and so far, India hasn't demonstrated reductions, they said.
U.S. May Sanction India Over Level of Iran-Oil Imports - Bloomberg

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan and Pratish Narayanan - Mar 15, 2012
 

trackwhack

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How about GOI telling the US that they are welcome to foot 20% of our oil import bills and we will buy from the Saudis. :lol:

Either way, the sanctions apply to only Indian banks that process oil payments. GOI has been smart enough to restrict that to just one Bank (UCO Bank, I think) and they dont do any business with the US or something to that effect.
 
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nrj

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Hot air :blah:

Elections are near so lot of tough talk these days. Yesterday they threatened to wage full-blown trade war with china. Presidential campaign managers & Israeli lobby do not represent american strategic vision.
 
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utubekhiladi

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obama is going to screw himself. bigtime.

sanction is nothing new for us...

that's why i kept saying stay away from american weapons..
 

utubekhiladi

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Hot air :blah:

Elections are near so lot of tough talk these days. Yesterday they threatened to wage full-blown trade war with china. Presidential campaign managers & Israeli lobby do not represent american strategic vision.

i want to know more about it. send me the link
 

Payeng

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Imposing sanction because we are doing trade and business, that's insane and autocratic. A :bs: step by a developed nation upon a developing nation,
 

Tronic

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This is also a perfect example to all those people who were talking about "strategic relationship" by buying F-16s or F-18s. There is nothing "strategic" about being enslaved to another country's foreign policy. Thank god we did not buy American for our front lines.
 

utubekhiladi

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This is also a perfect example to all those people who were talking about "strategic relationship" by buying F-16s or F-18s. There is nothing "strategic" about being enslaved to another country's foreign policy. Thank god we did not buy American for our front lines.

but we already lined up 18 billion dollars of equipment.. like Apaches, big guns, p8i, c-130, AC-130, and many more
 

panduranghari

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50 years of sanctions made no difference for India, what is this sanction going to action.
 

sukhish

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How about GOI telling the US that they are welcome to foot 20% of our oil import bills and we will buy from the Saudis. :lol:

Either way, the sanctions apply to only Indian banks that process oil payments. GOI has been smart enough to restrict that to just one Bank (UCO Bank, I think) and they dont do any business with the US or something to that effect.
sanctions will affect to only those bank which do business with iran. that should be fine, UCO bank has no dealings with U.S.
so what the heck is the problem. obama has to show something to the isreali lobby. In all praticality it won't matter to India.
 

thakur_ritesh

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US threatens sanctions against India over Iran oil

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is threatening to impose sanctions on India over its continued economic ties with Iran amid disagreements between Washington and New Delhi over how much and how soon the latter is reducing oil imports from the (in US eyes) pariah nation.

India has "failed" to reduce its purchase of Iranian oil and if it doesn't do so, President Barack Obama may be "forced" to impose sanction, unnamed administration officials were cited as telling Bloomberg wire service. A decision in this regard could come as early as June 28, they added, implicitly offering New Delhi a ten- week window to show a decline in Iranian oil imports.

Indian officials have contested the US assessment by insisting New Delhi is scaling down Iranian oil imports with more reduction in the pipeline, but that concession has been offset by India's commerce ministry's well-publicized efforts to ramp up trade with Iran in other areas, a move that has not gone unnoticed by the powerful pro-Israeli lobby in US.

The potent American Jewish Committee (AJC), which holds Israeli interests dear to its heart, raged against an Indian business delegation being shepherded to Iran by the Indian commerce ministry, pointing to it as an example of New Delhi's perfidy at a time Israel is India's close military and counter-terrorism partner.

That prompted a strong rebuttal from the Indian embassy in Washington, accusing certain lobbies of presenting a "distorted picture of New Delhi's foreign policy objectives and energy security needs" by selective use of data about its imports from Iran.

But the anti-Iran lobby in US has been galvanized by a report on Wednesday from the International Energy Agency (IEA), showing that India and South Korea "sharply" increased their oil imports from Iran in January.

However, India has informally conveyed to Washington that it has advised its refineries, many of which are geared towards processing Iranian crude, to seek alternate supplies and gradually reduce their dependence on Iran. That process may take some time to kick in since annual crude contracts with Iran are April to March, so the reduction will start to show from next month.

India has enough time to show compliance since the US law relating to sanctions vis-a-vis Iran kicks in only if countries don't make a "significant" cuts in their Iranian crude oil purchases during the first half of this year. The law does not specify by what percentage a nation must reduce its imports to qualify for an exemption from sanctions, so countries like South Korea and Japan have been negotiating with Washington the quantum of cuts they can live with. India is also believed to be in discussion with U.S in this matter.

While the impending Indian compliance has been quietly acknowledged by some Obama administration officials, the hardline pro-Israeli lobby in US is champing at the bit. At a Congressional hearing earlier this month Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told lawmakers that while the US remains concerned about India's links with Iran, she acknowledged that New Delhi is ''heading in the right direction''.

"In fact, I think in a number of instances, the actions of countries and their banks are better than the public statements that we sometimes hear them making," Clinton said in an indication of the Indian assurances.

The Obama administration itself is in a bind over squeezing too hard and tightening oil supplies across the world. While Washington has offered to wean India and other countries from Iranian oil by arranging supplies from Saudi Arabia and Iraq, that could come at its own expense and rising oil prices. Already, gas prices are close to $ 4 a gallon at US pumps, and it is a well-acknowledged fact that the fortunes of US politicians running for high office is linked to pain (or otherwise) at the pump.

US threatens sanctions against India over Iran oil - The Times of India

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For the record, India has committed 10-15% drop in our purchase/sourcing of oil from Iran. India has committed, and will implement the same well before July this year.

This episode was being used to check the extent the US can go to when it comes to its interests, and how prone and close does India remain to sanctions. Wont be wrong in suggesting, the US fell for the bait. Other than trying to balance out the trade between India-Iran, the recent trade delegation headed by Mr Arvind Mehta was also to test the waters on this issue, a deliberate ploy to an extent.

Will Indo-US relations return to the same levels of warmth as witnessed earlier during the days of prez Bush, remains doubtful. India might want to start dealing with them on case-by-case issue, than have a holistic approach, as was happening earlier. Indians are left with some bitterness.
 

Thai

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The policy of US in this matter is extremist. If its true, it is harmful for the actual stabilisation of the region.
 

civfanatic

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The good old "you are with us or against us" philosophy. I was wondering when it would show up again :dude:
 

sukhish

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I don't know when people in this forum will mature up, they are telling us that could put sanctions against India by jun 28. Why have they given us so much time ? They could have just gone ahead and sanctioned us, but no they have given us till June 28 for us to prepare for the adverse affects of it.

By that time none of the Indian banks which do business with Iran would be doing business with the US. They also have pressure to which they have to cater in an elections cycle. If they put sanctions against UCO bank, what harm it would do to us. Now they are not going to cut our weapon supply.
 

illusion8

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This sanctioning bit is an eye wash to assuage a few lobbies who were anyways anti India from the start. Even if implemented the sanctions will not have much of a bite. Israel is bent on dragging the US into war with Iran, but the US wants to bend Iran diplomatically and economically which it feels is possible. But this diplomacy is not helped by the enormous support from the US public who want the US to attack Iran, second the Israeli lobby who wants a preemptive strike on Iran.

The US pretty well knows the consequences to the world and its own interests if a war starts and are avoiding such a scenario at the moment. It also very well knows Indias position and interests with Iran.

If sanity prevails in US polity it will not attack Iran for Indias sake and will not directly attack Syria to saffeguard Russias investments and interests in Syria.
 

KS

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Eye wash and nothing else and they know it.
 

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