New Delhi, July 17 (UNI) A high-level US delegation on Tuesday met Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale
and other senior officials from the Ministries of External Affairs and Finance separately on the vexed
US move for sanctions over Iran oil import issue.
The American delegation led by Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Marshall Billingslea
are here as the first of a series of official reach out from the US to India after President Donald
Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The US administration has since asked countries like India and China to halt imports from Tehran
to the level of 'zero' or face sanctions.
The first part of US sanctions would come into force from August 6.
The meetings were held on Tuesday even as the United States has lately given broad indications about
a modest climb down and said it is open to limited exemptions from the heat of the sanctions.
"......if there are specific situations, we are open to listening. We want people to reduce oil purchases to zero,
but in certain cases if people can't do that overnight, we'll consider exemptions," US Treasury Secretary
Steven Mnuchin told reporters in Mexico.
The US delegation also met senior officials in the Union Finance Ministry and this meeting suggests both sides
are keen to discuss in details on how much India actually depends on Iran 'economically' vis-a-vis its
dependence on Tehran for oil import and energy needs, sources said.
Like India, a number of Iranian oil importers including China would find implementing US sanctions
vis-a-vis reduce oil imports from Iran by November 4 (2018) deadline as a difficult proposition.
On Monday, Foreign Secretary Gokhale held talks with an Iranian delegation led by Deputy Foreign
Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Monday.
The Indian side had informed the visiting Iranian side that New Delhi has not taken any final decision on compliance but it would go by the "national interests".
Later talking to reporters, Mr Araghchi said, he got “a very good sense” that India would find a
way to continue bilateral cooperation, including on buying oil.
Iran has underlined on the importance of the JCPOA signed in 2015 as an important diplomatic achievement saying it can impact not only the signatory countries but the entire international community.
Sources said to deal with 'impact' of US sanctions, India could revive rupee-rial arrangement for
importing oil from Iran. New Delhi would prefer the Trump administration to consider providing it some
waiver from the 'sanctions'.
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