NEW DELHI,Jan18, 2012,(AFP): Energy-hungry India said Tuesday it was continuing to buy oil from Iran, despite an intensifying US campaign to smother Tehran’s vital oil exports until it abandons its nuclear programme.“We have accepted sanctions which were made by the United Nations. Other sanctions do not apply to individual countries,” Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told a news conference. “We continue to buy oil from Iran.” Iran is India’s second-largest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia, providing around 12 percent of the fast-growing country’s oil needs at an annual cost of around $12 billion. Washington is spearheading a campaign to squeeze Iranian oil exports, and President Barack Obama recently signed a bill allowing penalties on foreign banks who settle oil import costs with Iran’s central bank. The law provides waivers to firms in countries that significantly reduce crude supplies from Iran. Under Washington’s measures, foreign firms must choose between doing business with the Islamic republic or the United States. Mathai said India would not seek a waiver from the United States. Japan said late last week it would cut imports but China has refused to bow to US pressure. The Indian foreign secretary’s statements came after a high-level government delegation departed for Tehran to work out an alternative mode of payment for oil, a senior finance ministry told AFP, asking not to be named. Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar told reporters on Monday the delegation would “work out what (could be done) in terms of the new sanctions under section 1245 of the US Act”. New Delhi at present pays Iran $1 billion every month through Turkey. India fears Turkey may come under pressure to halt the conduit with the fresh US round of sanctions against Iran. The European Union is slated to announce tough measures of its own at the end of the month. Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is for exclusively peaceful purposes, has repeatedly said it will not abandon uranium enrichment despite four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions demanding it desist.
