US expects buyers of Iran's crude to deepen cuts
The United States expects countries that buy oil from Iran to further reduce their purchases if they want to avoid U.S. sanctions, a State Department source said on Wednesday.
"The law requires additional cuts so we expect buyers to make additional cuts," a source at the State Department said about the U.S. sanctions law signed a year ago by President Barack Obama.
Under that law, banks in countries that buy oil from Iran can be cut off from the U.S. financial system unless the purchases are reduced.
China, India, South Korea and other countries got six-month "exceptions" to the sanctions in June for reducing oil shipments from Iran. The law says the cuts have to be "significant" but does not dictate how deep they must be.
The sanctions are designed to make it harder for Iran to fund its nuclear program, which Washington suspects is enriching uranium to levels that could be used in weapons, a charge Iran denies.
The architects of the sanctions legislation, Democratic Senator Robert Menendez and Republican Senator Mark Kirk, have urged the White House to require countries to reduce purchases by about 18 percent before getting the next round of waivers.
The 18 percent level surfaced in March when the State Department exempted Japan from sanctions, estimating that it had cut purchases by 15 to 22 percent.
Carlos Pascual, the State Department's top energy diplomat, and other U.S. Officials have been having conversations with Iran's top oil buyers as well as oil producers to see
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