Sri Lanka will not qualify for any concessionary treatment from Washington following United States sanctions on Iran.
All US persons and entities (companies, non-profit groups, banks, government agencies, etc.) wherever located are covered by the sanctions which US President Barack Obama signed into law.
A request to exclude Sri Lanka from the sanctions was made when Luke Bronin, the visiting US Deputy Assistant Secretary to the Treasury met Ministry of Petroleum Industries Secretary R.H. S. Samarasinghe. He was heading a four member delegation.
Mr. Samarasinghe told Mr. Bronin that Sri Lanka only accounted for two per cent of Iran’s oil exports though it constituted 93 per cent of Sri Lanka’s requirements. Hence he sought a favourable response from the US. According to diplomatic sources, the Obama administration has tied US assistance to human rights records in countries it assisted. In the light of Sri Lanka’s own record, these sources said, the request for exception could not be granted.
Whilst the government is now unable to import crude or refined oil products from Iran, its requests from Oman and Saudi Arabia are yet to materialise. Besides, Iran is said to owe more than US $ 25 million for tea exports made from Sri Lanka to that country. The sanctions mean that no foreign bank heeding the sanctions would remit monies. |
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