German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Thursday that Germany was seeking more details from the United States about possible sanctions Washington planned to impose on Iran, Reuters reported.
On Wednesday, the White House said that Trump was preparing to impose new sanctions on Tehran, perhaps as early as next week, but gave no details.
Maas, speaking in Moscow after holding talks with his Russian counterpart, said it was important that the United States take into account secondary effects such sanctions could have on third countries. Mass also said that it is crucial that Iran sticks to its obligations under the international nuclear deal, and that Moscow can use its influence on Tehran in this respect. Speaking after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Maas also said that Russia and Germany agreed that the Iran nuclear agreement should be upheld.
Meanwhile, the oil price rose on Thursday and was set for its largest weekly increase in a month, as the market prepared for potential disruption to crude flows from major exporter Iran in the face of U.S. sanctions.
Analysts had little hope that opposition to the U.S. action would prevent sanctions from going ahead. “Europe and China will not fight against the U.S. sanctions. They will grumble and accept it. There is no one who will realistically choose Iran over the U.S.,” said energy consultancy FGE, Reuters adds.
“We believe the previous 1 million bpd limit for exports (imposed during previous sanctions) will be reimposed. As before, it may take several rounds of reductions to reach target levels,” FGE’s founder and chairman Fereidun Fesharaki wrote in a note.
The United States plans to impose new sanctions against Iran, which produces around 4 percent of global oil supplies, after abandoning an agreement reached in late 2015 that curbed Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for removing U.S.-Europe sanctions.
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