Veep calls on CBI to Prepare for US Oil Sanctions : First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri called on the Central Bank of Iran to devise the required plans to safeguard the country’s economy against potential US sanctions.

“One of the plans pursued by the US to minimize Iran’s revenues is imposition of restrictions on the sale of oil, petrochemicals and metals and the CBI is now required to revise its policies,” the official said on Saturday evening.

“In the field of curbing inflation, job creation, increasing investment, boosting non-oil exports, and meeting the needs and problems of the private sector, the [Rouhani] administration’s economic team has had good gains, the official said, addressing the farewell ceremony of CBI head.

He further said that currently the country was in a sensitive state but it never meant it had reached a dead end, and there were opportunities that needed to be exploited to drive the country towards development. Source: SHANA

Related: For Japan, South Korea, and India the problem of oil supplies is actually one of balancing interests. “We are in a knotty situation as we have to listen to the U.S., but at the same time Iran is an important supplier of crude and condensate,” a research fellow from the Korea Energy Economics Institute told Bloomberg. “It’s the Trump administration that we are dealing with, and that unpredictability is stoking concern among refiners and petrochemical companies in Asia, making them voluntarily cut their shipments from Iran before the deadline.”
It seems some of this frustration has gotten through to Washington. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday said that “There will be a handful of countries that come to the United States and ask for relief from that. We’ll consider it.”