Global Geopolitical Series: President Trump to ‘take care’ of Iran’s oil importers defying sanctions

China and India are the two biggest buyers of Iranian crude. Together they accounted for more than 50 percent of Iranian oil exports. With China being slightly bigger. In the face of looming sanctions, and amid the heightened trade tensions, China has promised to keep the oil flowing from Iran despite U.S. sanctions and together with the EU and Russia, it is working on a mechanism using the newly created special purpose vehicle (SPV) to bypass the sanctions. India, on the other hand, has also promised to keep the oil flowing not for trade war but for the importance of oil to its economy and increased price is already creating political tensions in the country.

The United States, on the other hand, under the leadership of President Trump exited the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), better known as the Iran nuclear agreement, and since August, started imposing sanctions on Iran. In August, the first round of sanctions targeting Iran’s access to the USD and dollar-based financial system went into effect, and the next round targeting Iran’s oil exports and banking sector would go into effect in early November.

When asked by reporters that China and India have announced that they would continue imports, President Trump cleared that the United States would take care of the countries that defy its sanctions aimed to bring Iran’s exports to a halt.

In September, China imported 0.623 million barrels of crude oil of which 0.18 million barrels were shipped via ghost ships (that switches off its tracking device) and India imported 0.499 million barrels, of which 0.14 million came via ghost ships.