The Trump administration is temporarily lifting longstanding sanctions banning the “sale, delivery, or offloading of crude oil or petroleum products of Iranian origin” for the next month in hopes of curbing the meteoric rise in oil prices.
The increasing cost of oil has threatened economies across the globe since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran started last month.
A “General License” issued by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control released late Friday permits the purchase of Iranian oil that has already been loaded onto “any vessel” — including ships that have already been sanctioned — by waiving 10 separate sets of sanctions that have targeted both Russian and Iranian oil.
The sanctions that are being temporarily set aside have been in place for years, with many originating during Trump’s first term.
They were imposed to punish Russia for its unprovoked 2022 invasion of Ukraine and other “harmful foreign activities” and to penalize Iran for years of malign activities, human rights violations, support for terrorism and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
By waiving the sanctions, the U.S. will allow Iranian and Russian oil that is currently at sea to be purchased and unloaded without penalty until April 19, at which point the sanctions will resume unless the Treasury extends the waiver.
In a post on X announcing the decision, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended it as a “narrowly tailored, short-term authorization” that applies only to Iranian petroleum that is “currently stranded at sea.”
He claimed the sanctions have permitted China to “hoard” Iranian oil “on the cheap” while also suggesting that temporarily relaxing sanctions would inject approximately 140 million barrels into global markets. He said this would help in “expanding the amount of worldwide energy” and relieving what he described as “temporary pressures on supply caused by Iran.”