India, China among eight countries that can buy Iranian oil: US

Washington: India, China and Japan are among eight countries temporarily allowed to continue buying Iranian oil as they showed "significant reduction" in oil purchase from the Persian Gulf country after the US reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday.

"We have decided to issue temporary allotments to a handful of countries responsible to specific circumstances and to ensure a well-supplied oil market. The US will be granting these exemptions to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey," Pompeo told reporters here.

He vowed that the US would be "relentless" in pressuring Iran and said each of those countries has already demonstrated "significant reductions of the purchase of Iranian crude over the past six months."

Two of those eight have already completely ended imports of Iranian crude and will not resume as long as the sanctions regime remains in place, he said.

"We continue negotiations to get all of the nations to zero," he said.