US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday that countries could win US consent for some imports to continue if they reduce their purchases of Iranian oil.

Iran PressAmerica: Steven Mnuchin said countries would have to reduce their purchases of Iranian oil by more than the roughly 20 percent level they did from 2013 to 2015 to get waivers.

“I would expect that if we do give waivers it will be significantly larger reductions,” said US Treasury Secretary in an interview with Reuters in Jerusalem.

He added: “Oil prices have already gone up, so my expectation is that the oil market has anticipated what’s going on in the reductions. I believe the information is already reflected in the price of oil.”

His comments come as Brian Hook, the head of US State Department's newly-established Iran Action Group, has previously said that the United States is prepared to impose sanctions on all countries that continue to buy Iran's oil -- including China -- after Washington starts restoring bans on the Islamic Republic’s energy sector.

Iranian Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh stressed last week that if US lifts sanctions against Iran, then oil prices will decrease and the market will not be unstable anymore.

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Back in May, the US withdrew from a 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement with Iran and said it would re-introduce the sanctions that had been lifted under the accord.

Washington reinstated a series of unilateral sanctions against Iran in early August and would re-impose a second batch in November which would primarily be meant to undermine Tehran’s oil exports.

Beijing and New Delhi have thus far been defiant to Washington's call to stop buying Iranian oil, saying they abide only by sanctions imposed by the United Nations and not those imposed by any other country.

 

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