Washington exempts India and six others from Iran sanctions

, Jun 11: The

said on Tuesday that it would exempt India and six other countries from financial

for significantly reducing purchase of Iranian oil. "Today I have made the determination that seven economies, namely, —India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Taiwan, have significantly reduced their volume of crude oil purchases from

," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement.

She said the exemptions would be granted to the said countries, which join Japan and a number of European countries already on the list of those exempted from Iran sanctions act. The exemption will come into effect later this month.

Clinton issued the statement in this regard hours before External Affairs Minister SM Krishna was to arrive in Washington to co-chair the third India-US Strategic Dialogue along with his American counterpart. In her statement, Clinton said as a result of her determination, she will report to the Congress that relevant sanctions will not apply to financial institutions of these countries. "We have implemented these sanctions to support our efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and to encourage Iran to comply with its international obligations," she said.

"Today's announcement underscores the success of our sanctions implementation. 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," Clinton said. "The US remains committed to a dual-track policy that offers Iran a chance to engage seriously with the international community to resolve our concerns over its nuclear programme through negotiations with the P5+1," she said. The Secretary of State said Iran has the ability to address these concerns by taking concrete steps during the next round of talks in Moscow and urged its leaders to act accordingly.

PTI