...
Exemptions Granted
Mark Dubowitz, a sanctions advocate who prepared reports for Congress and the administration on Revolutionary Guard links to the oil sector, said the ties taint Iran's crude by association with the Revolutionary Guard and should encourage law-abiding refiners to seek other suppliers.
"This determination matters for all those foreign companies that continue dealing with NIOC and its dozens of subsidiaries," Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said in an interview today. He called it a strong signal against "buying, financing, insuring or otherwise dealing in Iranian oil" now that U.S. law is establishing a link to what he called "the world's most dangerous terrorist organization and proliferator."
China was the leading importer of Iranian oil in the first six months of last year, followed by Japan, India and South Korea, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. All four nations were granted renewable 180-day exemptions from U.S. financial sanctions over their Iranian oil purchases earlier this year.
...