After vowing to strangle Iran's economy, Trump admin. is divided over how far to squeeze Tehran.
The Trump administration has dismissed the accusations, saying the regime has mismanaged its economy and has plenty of money to buy medicine.Citing U.S. laws that allow the sale of food and medicine to Iran, a State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said:"We understand the importance of this activity since it helps the Iranian people. It has never been, nor is it now, U.S. policy to target this trade.
"What's disturbing in this situation is the administration has reimposed sanctions, and is pursuing sanctions aggressively, yet they don't seem to have given much thought to finding avenues to ensure our sanctions don't cut off needed humanitarian supplies to Tehran," said a Democratic congressional aide, who was not authorized to speak on the record.
Now the administration is weeks away from a decision on whether to extend exceptions for countries buying Iranian crude, and the administration has sent out mixed signals. Officials say U.S. policy is to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero, but they also have refused to rule out renewing some or all of the waivers.
The oil market was taken by surprise in November when Washington issued waivers to Iran's top oil customers: China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey. Oil prices dropped as a result, as producers had anticipated a total ban on Iranian oil.
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