After the US pulled back from the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, US warned other nations including Japan to cease oil imports from Iran. Paying heed to the US warnings, Japan will slowly cease the oil imports from Iran. Japan has alternatives in Saudi Arabia and UAE among others for its oil needs as it prepares to break its oil alliance with Iran.
The US had asked all other nations to cease the import of oil from Japan by November. As reported by Japan’s premier business newspaper, Nikkei, Japan aims to completely stop oil imports from Iran by October. JXTG Holdings and Idemitsu Kosan are the two Japanese suppliers of Iranian oil and both of them were warned by the US to halt oil trade with Iran completely.
Even India and China among other nations have been asked to cease oil imports from Iran as the US will look to bring Iran under heavy sanctions and isolate the Iranian economy. The US stated that if any nation continues to import oil from Iran post-November 4 then they would be liable to the same sanctions as those implacable on Tehran. India has been in a spot of bother as it needs to make this awkward choice between Washington Tehran. China, on the other hand, is already fighting a massive trade war with the US.
In the wake of these warnings the Japanese banks then notified that they would stop settling transactions related to Iranian Oil. This makes the purchase of Iranian oil by JXTG Holdings and Idemitsu Kosan impossible.
After pulling out from the Iran Nuclear Deal on May 8, the US President promised that not only will the US reimpose the old sanctions against Tehran but also a new series of sanctions will be stamped on Iran. Sanctions on Iran’s energy sector will come down heavily in effect from November 4, 2018.
