India has ended all of its oil imports from Iran, said Harsh Vardhan Shringla, India's Ambassador to the United States.

In April, the Trump administration announced that it would not renew waivers on sanctions that were imposed on Iranian imports, including oil, last year. A waiver on these sanctions were given to some countries like India, for a period of 6 months to find replacements. The period of this waiver ended on 2 May.

By April, India had sharply reduced its crude imports from Iran to one million tonnes, Shringla told reporters during a briefing on Prime Minister Modi's general elections victory.

He further said that imports from Venezuela were also ended, in consideration to India's partnership with the US. He also called Iran as India's "extended neighbour" with longstanding cultural links and declined to comment whether India shares Trump's concerns with Tehran.

India was the second biggest buyer of Iranian crude oil after China. It bought some 24 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran in the fiscal ended March 31 (2018-19). Iran supplied more than a tenth of its oil needs.

Last year, US President Donald Trump, withdrew the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, where in-return for promises of sanctions relief, Tehran promised to drastically scale back its nuclear work. These sanctions were revived in November 2018, however, a six-month waiver from the sanctions was granted by the US to eight countries, namely, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy, and Greece on a condition that they would reduce their purchases of Iranian oil to zero, gradually.

GoodReturns.in