US exempts Seoul from Iran sanctions

By Kim Young-jin

The United States Monday exempted Korea from its sanctions on Iran’s oil industry, Monday, citing significant cuts made by Seoul that are part of efforts to curb Tehran’s alleged nuclear weapons ambitions.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement that India, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan had also been exempted due to significant reductions in their volume of crude oil imports from the Middle Eastern country.

The allies have engaged in active diplomacy over the reduction, which raised some concerns here as Korea imported about 10 percent of its oil from Iran as recently as 2010. Seoul has worked to make cuts since late last year.

Clinton said the exemptions demonstrated the efficacy of Washington’s campaign to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and “encourage Iran to comply with its international obligations.”

“Today’s announcement underscores the success of our sanctions implementation,” she said. “By reducing Iran’s oil sales, we are sending a decisive message to Iran’s leaders: until they take concrete actions to satisfy the concerns of the international community, they will continue to face increasing isolation and pressure.”

The exemptions suggest the allies were able to hammer out differences over how deep of cuts Seoul should make.

The countries join 11 others that received the exemption in March.

To be implemented on June 28, the National Defense Authorization Act prevents financial institutions that deal with Tehran’s central bank from accessing the U.S. financial system.

The White House played down potential impact the sanctions could have on the global oil market if the sanctions are implemented, saying in a statement that production increases in other countries and weaker demand overall “have mitigated oil market tightness to a degree."

Seoul officials said earlier in the year the Lee Myung-bak administration had offered to cut some 20 percent of its crude imports from Iran.

Washington is pursuing a "dual-track policy" on Iran of sanctions and dialogue with a fresh round of “P5+1” talks to be held in Moscow next week involving Tehran, the U.S., Britain, China, France, and Russia and Germany.