US ‘hopes’ to avoid secondary sanctions on China over Iranian oil purchases
Mark Pfeifle, a former US national security official, says Washington hopes it will not have to impose secondary sanctions on Chinese buyers of Iranian crude, and is keeping the measure in reserve.
“I think that Trump and his Treasury Department will hold that in their back pocket as something they need to do if it becomes necessary,” he told Al Jazeera.
Pfeifle said that broad measures against Beijing would be diplomatically difficult because the two economies remain intertwined, and that the aim for now was to make China more comfortable buying oil elsewhere.
Chinese refiners have bought sanctioned Iranian crude at a discount, he said, an advantage against their global competitors. He added that Beijing had shown no interest in helping Washington, and was probably assisting Tehran quietly.
“The Chinese are playing the long game. They have no problem seeing the Americans tied up in another international excursion such as this war in Iran,” he said.
Xi Jinping is due in Washington, DC, on September 24 for talks with Trump.
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