European officials, said on Tuesday that United States reached out to China about a diplomatic move of reducing its import of crude oil from Iran, for America to pressurise Tehran for initiating talks about the nuclear deal of 2015.
Even though United States had designed sanctions to cut off Iran’s huge sales of crude oil, Chinese companies that have been importing oil from Iran in massive amounts, have helped Iran to keep its economy afloat.
The US sanctions were aimed at pressuring Iran to curb its nuclear activities, by choking off its economy. A senior US official who spoke to the press on condition of anonymity said that they were aware of the purchases that were being made by Chinese companies, from Iran.
Iran had evaded sanctions from United States, which pressured US to use their sanction authorities to respond to Iran. US made it clear that it had been approaching Chinese authorities as part of their conversation about Iran deal. US is considering reaching out to China, as an effective way to address their concerns.
European officials said that China had been protecting Iran for years. One of the main concerns about the issue for the Western countries was the amount of oil that was being purchased from Iran, by China.
Both the European officials as well as US officials spoke anonymously due to the sensitivity issue of nuclear diplomacy. US State Department has not commented on the statements yet.
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