India Won't Seek U.S. Waiver on Iran Sanction

By RAKESH SHARMA And SAURABH CHATURVEDI

NEW DELHI – India won't seek a waiver of U.S. sanctions on Iran and continues to buy crude oil from the country, Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said Tuesday.

"We have accepted sanctions which are made by the United Nations. Other sanctions do not apply to individual countries. We don't accept that position," Mr. Mathai told a news conference.

Mr. Mathai's comments come as the U.S and European Union are pushing to ban or discourage Iranian oil exports and deprive the country of a key revenue source as part of efforts to force Tehran into suspending its alleged nuclear weapons program.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Dec. 31 signed a law imposing sanctions against banks that trade with the Iran's central bank, through which much of Iranian oil sales are cleared.

A country may to be granted a waiver from the U.S. bank sanctions if it reduces its crude imports from Iran, or a waiver could be granted for the stability of the crude oil market, among other exceptions.

The 27-nation EU has also agreed in principle to enact an embargo on all purchases of Iranian oil, significantly increasing the West's financial war on Tehran at a time of heightened tensions in the Persian Gulf.

India gets about three-quarters of the crude it requires through imports, and Iran is its second-largest supplier after Saudi Arabia.

"We continue to buy oil from Iran. A large number of European Union countries also buy oil from Iran," Mr. Mathai said. "Each country continues to do that [buy oil]."

Mr. Mathai said a multi-ministerial Indian delegation is on its way to Tehran "to work out a mechanism for uninterrupted purchase of oil from Iran and to work out a financing mechanism."

Indian refiners such as Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd., Indian Oil Corp., Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. have been making payments to Iran for oil supplies through Turkey's Halkbank since July last year, after India's central bank in December 2010 disbanded a settlement mechanism that the U.S. said could be used by Tehran to finance its alleged nuclear weapons program.

Recent media reports have said that, with the U.S. and Europe tightening sanctions on Iran, Turkey may become unwilling to route India's payments.

Iranian defense officials had earlier said that they will retaliate against sanctions efforts by targeting Western ships operating in the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for oil shipments. Iran's parliament has introduced a bill that would require all foreign ships to gain Tehran's permission to enter the strategic waterway.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the strait carries about 20% of all oil traded worldwide.