The US administration has agreed to allow eight countries to continue purchasing Iran’s crude oil after Washington’s sanctions on Tehran take place next Monday, a senior official said Friday.
The administration official told Bloomberg that waivers were aimed at preventing oil price hikes and would be granted in exchange for continued import cuts.
The source said US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo was expected to announce the number of exemptions later on Friday.
In addition to Japan, India, and South Korea, the US would grant the oil waiver to China as well, two people familiar with Washington-Beijing discussions said on the condition of anonymity.
The other four countries to get waivers remained to be identified, but Turkey was predicted to be one of them. Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez announced on Friday he had heard rumors that the US is going to exempt Ankara from the upcoming sanctions.
However, he said, he had not received written notification regarding the possible exemption.
Previously, Pompeo had said it was "our expectation that the purchases of Iranian crude oil will go to zero from every country or sanctions will be imposed,” but also acknowledged that waivers were being negotiated with nations that said crude from the Middle East producer was critical to their energy industry.