The Trump administration will lift sanctions on Iranian oil stranded at sea under a one month license, while the president looks to seize Iranian nuclear materials.
The pause, which applies to Iranian oil loaded on ships as of Friday and is set to end on April 19, comes as the White House tries to bring down soaring oil prices, though Donald Trump did suggest he’s considering winding down the strikes.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously suggested the move as a way to prevent China from being the sole beneficiary of Iranian oil, saying Beijing has been ‘hoarding it on the cheap.’
‘By temporarily unlocking this existing supply for the world, the United States will quickly bring approximately 140 million barrels of oil to global markets, expanding the amount of worldwide energy and helping to relieve the temporary pressures on supply caused by Iran,’ he said on social media.
The authorization is limited to oil that is already in transit – which Bessent estimates at around 440 million barrels – and a ban remains on any new purchases or production.
‘President Trump’s pro-energy agenda has driven U.S. oil and gas production to record levels, strengthening energy security and lowering fuel costs. Any short-term disruption now will ultimately translate into longer-term economic gains for Americans – because there is no prosperity without security,’ he added.
He said that this new move, using the Iranian barrels, will ‘keep the price down’ for American consumers, who have been subject to hefty gas prices in recent weeks.
This was the third time the US has temporarily waived sanctions in about two weeks.
Trump administration Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (pictured) will lift sanctions on Iranian oil stranded at sea under a one-month license
Global fuel supplies have been under intense pressure because of Iran´s stranglehold on The Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported
The Trump administration also eased sanctions on certain Russian oil shipments for 30 days as it looks for ways to boost global oil supplies during the Iran war.
The license has limits including a restriction on sales involving anyone in North Korea or Cuba.
Meanwhile, Trump is also looking to extract nuclear materials from Tehran as part of the war efforts.
Joint Special Operations Command forces would be deployed to the region in an effort to extract those resources, CBS News reported.
The White House said that the Pentagon’s job was to make preparations when questioned about the plan.
Trump announced Friday that he is considering winding down the strikes on Iran and ending the war in the Middle East, as he gets one step closer to destroying Tehran’s military capabilities.
On Friday, US Central Command posted yet another video of the US assault on Iranian soil.
They quoted CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper, who said: ‘Iran’s capabilities are declining.’
Global fuel supplies have been under intense pressure because of Iran´s stranglehold on The Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.
The shutdown has affected Americans at the pump especially, with the average price for a gallon of regular gas at $3.91, according to AAA.
That’s an increase of 25 percent from a year ago and a shock rise of 33 percent from one month ago, just before the start of the war.
Bessent’s latest announcement, lifting sanctions on Iranian oil, brings the hope that prices for Americans at the gas station will be kept down while Epic Fury continues on.
The pause, which applies to Iranian oil loaded on ships as of Friday and is set to end on April 19, comes as the White House tries to bring down soaring oil prices.
About 90 ships including oil tankers have crossed the Strait of Hormuz since the outset of the war with Iran and it is still exporting millions of barrels of oil at a time when the waterway has been effectively closed, according to maritime and trade data platforms.
Iran has still managed to export well above 16 million barrels of oil since the beginning of March, trade data and analytics platform Kpler estimated. Due to Western sanctions and associated risks, China has been the biggest buyer of Iranian oil.
More than one-fifth of the 89 vessels were believed to be Iran-affiliated, while Chinese and Greece affiliated ships are among the rest, it said.
Other vessels also have been getting through.
The Pakistan-flagged crude oil tanker Karachi, controlled by the Pakistan National Shipping Corp., passed through the strait on Sunday, Lloyd’s List Intelligence said.
Shariq Amin, a spokesman at the Pakistan Port Trust, refused to confirm or deny which route the MT Karachi had used but he said the ship would soon safely reach Pakistan.
The India-flagged liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers Shivalik and Nanda Devi, both owned by state-owned Shipping Corp. of India, also traveled through the strait around March 13 or 14, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. LPG is used as a primary cooking fuel by millions of Indian households.
Oil prices have jumped more than 40 percent to above $100 per barrel since the Iran war began, and Iran has threatened it won’t allow ‘even a single liter of oil’ destined for the US, and Israel and their allies to pass through.
Donald Trump has called for US forces to open a new front in Iran as jets pound Iranian ships in an all-out battle to reopen the Strait of Hormuz
The war in Iran will enter its fourth week on Saturday
Trump has called for US forces to open a new front in Iran as jets pound Iranian ships in an all-out battle to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
However, The Wall Street Journal reported that it could take weeks for the US to clear out the strait to get it operating closer to normal again.
At the same time, the US has been striking Iranian bases and IRGC cruise missile batteries, taking out over 120 of the country’s naval ships, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said Thursday.
Iran has responded by using small, unmanned boats with explosives, projectiles and airborne drones to attack enemy ships.
But many of America’s allies confirmed they would be unwilling to join Trump’s proposed coalition to keep the strait secure.
Six major international powers said Thursday they were ready ‘to contribute to’ ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, though three stressed that any initiative would take place post-ceasefire.
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands said Thursday they were ready ‘to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz’.
Six major international powers said Thursday they were ready ‘to contribute to’ ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, though three stressed that any initiative would take place post-ceasefire
The grouping said they ‘welcome the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning’, as they condemned ‘in the strongest terms recent attacks by Iran on unarmed commercial vessels in the Gulf’.
But Italy, Germany and France made clear later Thursday that they were not talking about any immediate military help, but rather a potential multilateral initiative after a ceasefire.
Some American allies, including Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Denmark, have committed to helping keep the strait open.
If the US cannot keep the route open, in the face of Iranian counter-attacks, even that trickle of exports will dry up.
Not only is this crippling the economies of countries north of the Strait, such as Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE, but it is depriving the whole world of oil and gas.
Overland transport is impossible on any scale. The pipelines do not exist and any convoy of tankers would be prey to Iranian drone strikes.
On Thursday, Iran hit the terminus of the only trans-Saudi Arabian pipeline at the Red Sea port of Yanbu, triggering Riyadh’s threat to enter the war.
The UK did, however, allow Trump to use America’s UK-based bombers to blast Iranian missile sites preventing oil and gas shipments using the strait.
The South Pars gas field in Iran after a strike in recent days
Downing Street gave the US the green light to use B-52s and other aircraft flying out of RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia to unlock the strategically important waterway amid spiraling fears of a major energy crisis.
In a statement the Government said that strikes were covered by its agreement with Trump to allow UK-based assets to be deployed in the ‘collective self-defense of the region’.
European leaders have demanded the reopening of the strait and a moratorium on strikes on water and energy infrastructure in the Middle East as they met in Brussels to grapple with rising energy prices caused by the war.
All heads of the 27 European Union nations known collectively as the European Council issued a joint statement Thursday calling for the stabilization of energy shipments and ‘de-escalation and maximum restraint’ from warring parties.
Over 3,000 Iranians have been killed in the war in its first three weeks, 1,394 of those civilians including at least 210 children, American human rights group HRANA said on Thursday.
The latest figures reported by state media put the toll at 1,270 people. Iran’s ambassador to the UN said on March 6 that at least 1,332 people had been killed since the war began. There has been no clarification of the discrepancy.
Around 1,021 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since March 2, according to Lebanese authorities. The World Health Organization and Lebanese health authorities said more than 100 of those killed were children.
Approximately 100 people from other nations – Iraq, Israel, the UAE, Kuwait, Syria, Oman, Saudi Arabia – have died.
As of Saturday, 13 American soldiers have lost their lives in the conflict.
