Saudi Arabia welcomes complete ban on Iran’s oil export

KABUL (Pajhwok): US President Donald Trump has decided to impose complete ban on Iranian oil by not reissuing Significant Reduction Exceptions (SREs) that expires in early May, a media report said on Tuesday.

This decision is intended to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero.

In a statement issued by the spokesperson of the White House today, "In line with the presidential declaration, beginning in early May, China, India, South Korea, Turkey, Japan, Taiwan, Italy and Greece will face US sanctions if they continue to buy the Iranian oil.

The White House affirmed that the United States, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, the world’s great energy producers, are committed to ensuring that global oil markets remain adequately supplied.

"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other members in OPEC will completely provide any shortage of the world's oil supplies," the statement added.

The White House affirmed that the US Administration and allies are determined to sustain and expand the maximum economic pressure campaign against Iran to end the regime’s destabilizing activity threatening the United States and allies in the Middle East, demonstrating the United States commitment to disrupting Iran’s terror network and changing the regime’s malign behavior. The statement welcomes the support of the US friends and allies for this effort.

Saudi Arabia Acting Foreign Minister Dr. Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf has expressed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's great welcome of the announcement of United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on sanctions being imposed on Iranian oil exports.

Minister Dr. Al-Assaf expressed the Kingdom's full support for the step taken by the United States of America as a necessary step to compel the Iranian regime to stop its destabilizing policies, support and sponsorship of terrorism around the world, where the Iranian regime has always used the resources of the Iranian State to finance these dangerous policies without regard to the principles of the international law.

He stressed the Kingdom's firm stance on the need to continue international efforts to compel the Iranian regime to abide by the principles of the international law and to stop its blatant interference in the internal affairs of other countries and its activities that have led to chaos and destruction of many countries.

nh