US exempts India, China from Iranian sanctions

The United States on Friday exempted some countries, including India and China, from the tough Iranian sanctions act as they continue to reduce their dependence on Iranian oil.

"I am pleased to announce that, based on additional significant reductions in the volume of their purchases of Iranian crude oil, China, India, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, and Taiwan have again qualified for an exception to sanctions...(under) the National Defence Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2012," Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

These additional reductions were determined based on an analysis of these economies' purchasing activity over the previous six months, Kerry said.

Additionally, Malaysia, South Africa, Singapore and Sri Lanka have also qualified again for the NDAA exception because they no longer purchase crude oil from Iran, he said.

Kerry's exemption in this regard came soon after the determination made by US President Barack Obama that there is sufficient supply of non-Iranian oil for countries to continue to reduce import of oil from Iran.

"There currently appears to be sufficient supply of non-Iranian oil to permit foreign countries to reduce significantly their purchases of Iranian oil, taking into account current estimates of demand, increased production by countries other than Iran, inventories of crude oil and petroleum products, and available spare production capacity," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.