U.S. Urges China To Cut Oil Imports From Japan

The United States has reached out to China diplomatically about reducing its purchases of Iranian crude oil, US and European officials said on Tuesday, as Washington seeks to persuade Tehran to resume talks about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, Arshad Mohammed and John Irish reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Tehran Oil Refinery

Purchases of Iranian oil by Chinese companies are believed to have helped keep Iran's economy afloat despite US sanctions that are designed to choke off such sales to put pressure on Iran to curb its nuclear program.

"We are aware of the purchases that Chinese companies are making of Iranian oil," said a senior US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

"We have used our sanctions authorities to respond to Iranian sanctions evasion, including those doing business with China, and will continue to do so if necessary," he added.

"However, we have been approaching this diplomatically with the Chinese as part of our dialogue on Iran policy and think that, in general, this is a more effective path forward to address our concerns," the official said.

Separately, a European official said this was one of the issues raised by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman when she visited China in late July.

The European official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the nuclear diplomacy, said China has been protecting Iran and suggested one of the main issues for the West is how much oil China is buying from Iran.

Commodity analytics firm Kpler estimates that year-to-date Chinese oil imports from Iran have averaged 553,000 barrels per day (bpd) through August.

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