Trump will allow Iran to sell its oil under deal — giving financial boost to Tehran’s regime
The yet-to-be-seen US-Iran deal will allow Tehran to restart its oil business, providing a financial lifeline to the regime, The Post has learned.
The US will issue sanctions waivers for Iran to begin selling oil during the 60-day negotiation period, which is set to begin after the Friday signing ceremony for the undisclosed memorandum of understanding, a source familiar with the agreement said.
Paired with Washington’s pledge to remove its blockade on Iranian ports, the move is expected to bring immediate cash flow into the Islamic Republic’s decimated economy.
The agreement will also cover “necessary services including banking, transportation and insurance needed to facilitate the sales,” the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Asked for comment on the report, a senior US official said every incentive in the MOU is “performance-based.”
“This is a performance-based agreement,” the senior official said. “Iran can only access any benefits of the MOU if they abide by all of the points they agreed to — including no nuclear weapon, neutralizing its enriched material, and not interfering with the free flow of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”
But a different senior US official, on a press call on Monday, said “sanctions relief” is tied to a less specific, general idea.
Read more Skeptical Republicans in Congress aren’t backing Trump on Iran deal before reading text
“The sanctions relief is not tied specifically to any particular conduct,” the person said. “It’s tied generally to them behaving more appropriately, and obviously the thing that we care the most about is the nuclear program.”
A second official on the same call with reporters noted that Washington would offer some giveaways at the start to grease the wheels of the negotiation process.
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“We’ll do some small gestures of that in the beginning, if they make some small gestures to us that show that they’re willing to meet their commitments as well,” the person said, without detailing the incentives or required Iranian commitments.
While senior officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have said the US would not lift sanctions on Iran until Tehran fixes the root problems that brought them on, they have said nothing publicly about whether that applies to sanctions waivers.
That means that while the sanctions themselves will technically stay in place, the waiver would allow the US to grant Iran relief without breaking its word to the American public.
Read more Details of US-Iran deal revealed — timeline for US withdrawal, $300B fund, Hormuz passage
