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US State Secretary Mike Pompeo said on November 5 that China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey had received waivers that would allow them to continue “temporary” imports of Iranian oil without facing penalties.

“I promise you,” Pompeo said, “that doing business with Iran in defiance of our sanctions will ultimately be a much more painful business decision than pulling out of Iran.”

Pompeo claimed that the US has a broad support for the Trump administration’s approach. He added that “There are more than three” countries in Europe, which didn’t receive waivers. France, Germany and the U.K. as well as Russia and China have worked to preserve the Iran nuclear deal following the US exit.

“There are certain transactions that they can continue to do, whether they’re humanitarian transactions or certain trade in the restricted accounts,” Pompeo said commenting on the approach of the US towards EU states.

Furthermore, Pompeo said that there will be a “swift punishment” to countries who defy the US’ anti-Iran sanctions.

Earlier on the same day, the US officially imposed a ban on Iranian oil imports and sanctioned more than 700 Iranian companies and energy producers, and individuals. They target 50 Iranian banks, 200 individuals, and vessels in Iran’s shipping and energy sectors, as well as one airline and 65 of its aircraft.

The newly imposed sanctions marked the second phase of the so-called maximum pressure campaign launched by the Trump adminsitration in order to force Iran to re-shape its foreign and defense policies as well as to overthrow the current Iranian government.

Commenting on the sanctions, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that Iran “will face mounting financial isolation until they fundamentally change their destabilizing behavior.”

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