Trump says he will soon make a decision about sanctions on Chinese companies buying Iranian oil

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that he will make a decision over the next few days about lifting sanctions on Chinese oil companies that buy Iranian oil.

Earlier this year, Washington looked to cut off revenue streams to Iran as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign imposed by Trump, weeks before the war with Iran began.

In April, the U.S. sanctioned several independent refineries, known as “teapots,” found importing Iranian oil, including one of China’s largest, Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery.

Iranian crude is usually transported to Chinese teapot refineries using a “shadow fleet” of tankers, which use deceptive tactics, such as disabling tracking systems and forging registration, to avoid detection.

Many shipments involve multiple ship-to-ship transfers, sometimes using scrapped vessels that are no longer in operation, often in the Persian Gulf or the Strait of Malacca, to obscure their origins.

Following the president’s visit to China, Trump was asked on Friday whether he would consider lifting the sanctions.

“Well, we talked about that, and I’m going to make a decision over the next few days,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

The U.S. and China made strides in strengthening the bilateral relationship during Trump’s closely watched visit. The two world leaders discussed everything from the Iran war to trade. However, talk of chip export controls was notably left out of the talks, while U.S. access to critical and rare earth minerals remains uncertain.

Trump told reporters Friday that he refused to directly answer Chinese President Xi Jinping when asked if the U.S. would defend Taiwan if it were attacked by China.

He also expressed frustration with Iran on progress towards a peace deal. The president said the U.S. is on board with Iran suspending its nuclear program for 20 years, but there needed to be a “level of guarantee” to that commitment.

— CNBC’s Lim Hui Jie helped contribute to this report.

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