India's decision to buy Iran oil, Russia missile not helpful: US
India's decision to continue buying oil from Iran after November 4 and purchase of the S-400 Triumf air defence system from Russia is "not helpful" and the US is reviewing it "very carefully", the State Department has said.
The US is trying to cut off all oil imports from Iran following President Donald Trump's decision in May to pull out of the 2015 multilateral deal that eased global sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's suspect nuclear programmes and malign activities. It has given a November 4 deadline to its allies to bring down their import of Iranian oil to zero.
Responding to questions on reports that India will continue to purchase oil from Iran after November 4, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said this was not helpful. India's Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday said that two state refiners have placed orders for importing crude oil from Iran in November.
"Overall with regard to those sanctions that will take effect on November 4th - and you're referring to the oil sanctions for Iran and countries that choose to continue purchasing oil from Iran - we have conversations with many partners and allies around the world about those sanctions," she said on Thursday.
"We make our policies very clear to those countries. We continue to have conversations with the government of Iraq about that particular issue and the implications for the reimposition of sanctions that were previously lifted or even waived under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)," Ms Nauert said. The Trump administration has given the same message to all countries around the world.
