The US is not considering easing sanctions on Iranian crude exports, either in exchange for a trade concession from China or any other action which falls short of meeting the demands outlined by the Trump administration in May, Brian Hook, the US State Department’s special representative for Iran, told S&P Global Platts. “The United States is not looking to grant any sanctions relief until we have a final deal with the Iranian regime that addresses the range of threats they present to peace and security,” Hook said in an interview late Monday. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s list of 12 demands “is as current today as it was in May of 2018,” Hook said.
Those demands include Iran halting its ballistic missile program and ending its support for terrorist groups and are widely viewed as a non-starter for negotiations with Iran. Analysts have speculated that the US may allow some easing of sanctions, such as allowing China to import a specified amount of Iranian crude, in order to get some concessions from China in ongoing trade talks and prevent oil prices from rising. But Hook dismissed that speculation, pointing to Iranian oil sanctions as a clear policy success.
“We have a lot of confidence that we have put in place the right strategy to starve the regime of the revenue that it needs to behave like an expansionist revolutionary theocracy,” Hook said. “But we also know that we need to put this sanctions architecture in place to compel them, to pressure them to come back to the negotiating table. Without the policy we put in place, both of those things are impossible.” Hook said that since reimposing oil sanctions a year ago, and ending waivers for some of Iran’s largest oil buyers in May, Syria remains the lone market for Iranian crude.
Iranian oil exports, which averaged more than 1.7 million b/d in March, fell below 500,000 b/d in August, September and October, based on preliminary estimates compiled from Platts trade flow software cFlow and shipping sources. Around 200,000-250,000 b/d of Iranian exports in September went to China, according to preliminary tracking.