President Trump’s decision Friday to allow China and other countries to continue importing Iranian oil despite the reimposition of sanctions drew criticism from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a prominent critic of both regimes.
“Sanctions waivers being given to key purchasers of Iranian oil, most alarmingly China, give Iran a financial reprieve and should be eliminated as soon as possible,” Rubio said in response to the administration’s announcement of the waivers.
Rubio, a Republican member of the Foreign Relations panel, favors a hawkish U.S. policy toward both Iran and China. But signs of conflict between Republican hawks within and outside the administration emerged late Thursday as the rollout of the sanctions announcement approached, with some expecting them to be significantly softened. When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Friday morning unveiled the policy for next week’s “snapback,” the announcement improved on the Thursday night expectations of Iran hawks. But Rubio made clear he’s not satisfied.
“Maximum pressure means not only restoring all of the sanctions measures that President Obama had wrongly suspended under the flawed Iran nuclear deal, but also going further to expand sanctions on the regime in Tehran,” Rubio said.
His comments are an apparent rebuke of Pompeo, who maintained earlier Friday that Trump is implementing the “maximum pressure” campaign effectively while defending the oil waivers that are being granted to “eight jurisdictions” that currently rely on Iranian oil.
“Not only did we decide to grant many fewer exemptions, but we demanded much more serious concessions from these jurisdictions before agreeing to allow them to temporarily continue to import Iranian crude oil,” Pompeo said. “These concessions are critical to ensure that we increase our maximum pressure campaign and accelerate towards zero. … Maximum pressure means maximum pressure.”
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Rubio criticizes Trump’s waiver for China for Iran oil sanctions https://t.co/LZrs6742la
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) November 2, 2018
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