The Biden administration is weighing ways to ease Iran’s financial pain without lifting crushing economic sanctions -- including on oil sales -- as a step toward reviving the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by former President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reports.
Some options U.S. officials are debating include providing backing for International Monetary Fund lending to Tehran for coronavirus relief and easing up on sanctions that have stymied international coronavirus aid from getting into Iran, according to four people familiar with the administration’s thinking. Such moves could be justified on humanitarian grounds.
President Joe Biden could also sign an executive order reversing Trump’s decision to quit the multinational deal, according to the people. But issuing sanctions waivers to allow Iran to sell oil on the international market isn’t currently under serious consideration, according to the people.
“Over recent months there’s been a lot of thinking in both Europe and the Democratic camp on a number of immediate measures the U.S. can realistically take,” said Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. She described the ideas under consideration as measures that “can still give Iran tangible relief.”
