The White House is obligated to ensure, every six months, that there are sufficient oil supplies worldwide to sustain the sanctions against Iran that were imposed in 2012 during the Barack Obama administration.
Biden’s statement comes ahead of a virtual meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday in what is expected to be the two leaders’ largest meeting since Biden took office.
China is the largest buyer of Iranian oil, with average purchases exceeding 500,000 barrels per day over the past three months.
China’s purchases of Iranian crude continued this year despite the sanctions.
The Biden administration is not currently imposing these sanctions before the upcoming negotiations with Iran to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement that will allow that country to resume selling its oil publicly.
“Consistent with prior conclusions, there are sufficient supplies of oil and petroleum products from countries other than Iran to allow significant reductions in the amount of oil and petroleum products purchased from Iran by or through foreign financial institutions,” Biden said in the memo.
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