The US State Department announced on Friday that Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Britain and Japan have qualified for 6-month sanctions exemptions because they had reduced their purchases of Iranian crude, a US condition for waivers.
The US had previously granted such temporary exemptions to the noted European countries along with several Asian states.
The Friday move came on the same day that the US Treasury Department extended its illegal sanctions against several individuals and businesses over their alleged interactions with Iran.
At the beginning of 2012, the US and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.
The illegal US-engineered sanctions were imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran's nuclear activities have non-civilian purposes.