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United States Secretary of States Hillary Clinton on Monday announced Obama administration's decision to exempt India and six other countries from US economic sanctions after they significantly reduced their imports of Iranian oil.
"Today I have made the determination that seven economies--India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan -- have all significantly reduced their volume of crude oil purchases from Iran. They join the 11 countries for which I made this determination in March. As a result, I will report to the Congress that sanctions pursuant to Section 1245(d)(1) of the National Defence Authorisation Act for fiscal year 2012 will not apply to their financial institutions for a potentially renewable period of 180 days," she said in a statement.
"We have implemented these sanctions to support our efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and to encourage Iran to comply with its international obligations. Today's announcement underscores the success of our sanctions implementation. By reducing Iran's oil sales, we are sending a decisive message to Iran's leaders: until they take concrete actions to satisfy the concerns of the international community, they will continue to face increasing isolation and pressure," the statement added.
"The United States remains committed to a dual-track policy that offers Iran the chance to engage seriously with the international community to resolve our concerns over its nuclear program through negotiations with the P5+1. Iran has the ability to address these concerns by taking concrete steps during the next round of talks in Moscow. I urge its leaders to do so," the statement also said.