The United States is tightening its economic sanctions on Iran by ending a set of waivers Thursday that had allowed some of the country’s largest oil buyers to continue their purchases, Voice of America reports.
With the expiration of waivers for eight buyers, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the United States would be exerting “maximum pressure” on the Iranian government.
The U.S. State Department called the move a fulfillment of the Trump administration’s promise “to get Iran’s oil exports to zero and deny the regime the revenue it needs to fund terrorism and violent wars abroad.”
The move is the latest in a series of steps the United States has taken since President Donald Trump took office with a pledge to withdraw from the international agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
Trump announced the withdrawal in May 2018, and new sanctions went into place in November, with oil purchase waivers in place for China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy and Greece.
Since then, Italy, Greece and Taiwan have halted their Iranian oil imports.
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